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A  HOLIDAY  IN   UMBRIA 

WITH  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  URBINO  AND 
THE  CORTEGIANO   OF   CASTIGLIONE 


By  Sir  THOMAS  GRAHAM  JACKSON,  Bt 

R.A..  F.S.A. 

HON.    D.C.L.    OF   oxford;    HON.    LL.D.   OF  CAMBRIDGE 

HON.    FELLOW  OF   WADHAM   COLLEGE,   OXFORD 

ASSOCI^    DE    l'aCAd6mIE    ROYALE 

DE    BELGIQUE 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS 


^ 


NEW   YORK 

HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY 

1917 


^\ 


\\\ 


aSv 


IN 
MEMORIAM 

A.    M.    J. 

CARISSIMAE 
ITINERUM 
CONSORTIS 


All  rights  reserved 


PREFACE 

This  book  is  the  result  of  two  visits,  in  1881 
and  1888,  made  in  happier  days  to  a  part  of 
Italy  little  known  to  travelling  Britons,  but  not 
inferior  to  any  in  historical  associations  and  in 
beauty  of  nature  and  art.  There  are  important 
Roman  remains  at  Rimini,  Fano,  Ancona, 
and  in  the  Passo  del  Furlo,  near  the  scene  of 
Hasdrubal's  defeat  which  saved  the  Roman 
State.  The  architecture  of  the  Middle  Ages  is 
represented  by  the  churches  of  Ancona,  Gubbio, 
and  others,  and  the  earlier  and  most  interesting 
period  of  the  Renaissance  by  Alberti's  work  at 
Rimini,  and  the  ducal  palaces  of  Urbino, 
Pesaro,  and  Gubbio. 

The  Duchy  of  Urbino  was  the  birthplace  of 
Raffaelle  and  Bramante,  and  the  home  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  humane  court  of  Italy,  if  not 
of  Europe.  Unlike  most  Italian  princes,  who 
have  left  behind  them  a  record  of  treachery 
and  cruelty,  the  rulers  of  Urbino  deserved  and 
enjoyed  the  respect  and  love  of  their  subjects. 
Castiglione  has  given  us  in  his  Cortegiano  a 
picture   of  the   graceful   and   refined   society   at 


387658 


vi  PREFACE 

the  Court  of  Guidobaldo,  where  he  spent  the 
happiest  years  of  his  life.  His  book  is  now  little 
read,  and  the  brief  abstract  of  it  in  these  pages 
will,  it  is  hoped,  be  found  interesting.  Besides 
portraying  the  ideal  gentleman  as  then  conceived 
— a  picture  in  the  main  not  less  true  for  our 
own  day — the  Cortegiano  throws  a  valuable  light 
on  the  views  of  the  society  of  that  time  on  many 
other  subjects.  We  find  women  no  longer  wor- 
shipped with  the  idolatry  of  chivalry,  but  criticized 
with  freedom,  and  their  character  and  capacities 
variously  estimated,  praised  by  some  and  de- 
preciated by  others.  The  French  are  depicted 
as  restless  and  impetuous,  despisers  of  learning, 
and  caring  only  for  arms.  The  clergy  come  in 
for  unlimited  satire,  far  beyond  anything  in 
Chaucer  or  Boccaccio.  The  jumping  Cardinal, 
the  practical  joking  Cardinal,  the  lascivious 
priest  pass  as  a  matter  of  course.  There  is 
more  malice  in  the  suggestion  that  such-a-one 
had  he  stayed  in  Rome  might  have  become  a 
Cardinal,  he  was  so  wicked ;  and  that  Cardinals 
are  prayed  for  in  church  on  Good  Friday  in 
the  collect  for  heretics  and  schismatics.  Friars 
are  a  regular  butt  for  the  wit  of  Bibbiena,  but 
they  are  denounced  by  II  Magnifico  Giuliano  de' 
Medici  as  cursed  mischief-making  hypocrites, 
and  this  is  the  only  instance  in  the  book  where 
playful  satire  passes  into  a  bitter  mood. 


PREFACE  vii 

There  is  perhaps  no  other  book  that  brings 
the  reader  so  intimately  into  touch  with  the 
living  men  and  women  of  four  hundred  years 
ago.  As  we  read  we  become  of  the  party  our- 
selves ;  we  know  the  several  speakers ;  we  ap- 
preciate their  different  views ;  we  turn  to  the 
door  when  interrupted  by  the  trampling  of  feet 
and  the  blaze  of  lights  which  announce  the 
arrival  of  the  youthful  Prefetto,  and  we  rise 
with  surprise  when  daylight  peeps  through  the 
chinks  of  the  shutters  and  finds  us  still  in  the 
midst  of  our  pleasant  talk. 

The  story  of  the  Duchy  is  usefully  collected 
in  Dennistoun^s  Dukes  of  Urbino,  but  I  have 
referred  when  I  could  to  the  original  authorities, 
and  to  the  archives  at  Pesaro,  Urbino,  and 
Ancona.  Sir  T.  Hoby's  translation  of  the 
Cortegiano  in  1561  has  been  re-edited  with  an 
introduction  by  Sir  W.  Raleigh,  to  which  I  am 
much  indebted.  Other  works  to  which  I  have 
referred  will  be  found  mentioned  in  the  notes. 

A  few  of  the  illustrations  are  from  photo- 
graphs ;    the  rest  are  from  my  own  sketches. 

T.  G.  J. 

Eagle  House,  Wimbledon 
28  August  1 91 6 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

The  Adriatic  Shore — San  Marino — Rimini — The  Italian 

Despots — The  Condottieri  .  .  .  .         i 

CHAPTER  II 

Pesaro — The  Ducal  Palace — The  Churches — The  Villa 

Imperials    .  .  .  .  .  ...       20 

CHAPTER  III 

Fano — The  Basilica  of  Vitruvius — Ancona — The  Port 
AND  Trajan's  Arch — The  Churches — The  Loggia  and 
Giorgio  Orsini       .  .  .  .  .  -32 

CHAPTER   IV 
Loreto — The  Santa  Casa  and  the  Pilgrims  .  .      42 

CHAPTER  V 

Urbino  —  History  —  The  Montefeltrine  Dukes  —  Duke 
Federigo — The  Palace — Luciano  da  Laurana — Duke 
GuiDOBALDO  I. — The  Later  Dukes  .  .  -54 

CHAPTER  VI 
Urbino — The  Palace  and  Churches  .  .  -76 


X  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VII 

PAGE 

Count  Baldassare  Castiglione  and  the  Cortegiano         .     loo 

CHAPTER  VIII 
"II  Cortegiano" — The  Courtier      .  .  .  .114 

CHAPTER  IX 
Urbino;and  Castel-Durante      .        .  .  .  -174 

CHAPTER  X 

The  Apennines  from  Urbino  to  Gubbio — Passo  del  Furlo 

— Cagli       .......     183 

CHAPTER  XI 

Gubbio — The    Duomo — The    Ducal    Palace — Palazzo    dei 

CoNSOLi — Pretorio  .....     190 

INDEX 203 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

PLATE 

FIG. 

Ancona 

.     The  Port  and  Trajan's  Arch 

Frontispiece 

I. 

Loggia  dei  Mercanti.     {Photograph) 

38 

V. 

Portal  of  S.  Francesco.  {Photograph) 

40 

VI. 

Castel- 

DURANTE 

I  The  Ducal  Palace  .... 

179 

10 

FURLO 

Passo  del 

184 

XIII. 

GUBBIO    . 

View  of  the  Town  .... 

190 

... 

II 

Interior  of  the  Duomo    . 

192 

XIV. 

Cortile  of  the  Ducal  Palace     . 

194 

XV. 

LORETO 

.     Peasant  Women     .... 

49 

... 

4 

Pesaro 

Front  of  the  Ducal  Palace 

22 

IV. 

Villa  Imperiale,  Sketch  Plan  of  Chapel 

29 

... 

2 

„          „         Pavement 

30 

... 

3 

Rimini 

The  Porta  Romana.     (Photograph) 

6 

II. 

The  Monument  of  Isotta 

8 

III. 

Medallion  of  Sigismondo  Pandolfo 

Malatesta        .... 

19 

... 

I 

From  Dennistoun's  Dukes  of  Urbino. 

Xll 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

PLATE 

FIG. 

Urbino  .     Arms  of  the  Montefeltrine  Dukes    . 

53 

... 

5 

View  from  near  S.  Bernardino 

54 

... 

6 

Portraits  of  Duke  Federigo  and  his 

Duchess          .... 

64 

VII 

From  Dennistoun,  after  Pier  della  Fran- 

cesco. 

View  from  Road  to  Pesaro    . 

76 

vin. 

Ducal  Palace,  Plan  of  First  Floor    . 

84 

... 

7 

„          „        Section  from   Piazza 

to  Street 

^% 

... 

8 

„         „        Porta    della    Guerra. 

{Photograph) 

86 

IX. 

„         „        Chimney-piece,   degli 

Angeli  . 

88 

X. 

„          „        Chimney-piece       in 

East  Wing     . 

93 

... 

9 

Portrait  of  Count   Baldassare  Cas- 

tiglione 

100 

XL 

Picture  in  the  House  of  Giovanni 

Sanzi.     {Photograph) 

174 

XIL 

A    HOLIDAY    IN    UMBRIA 

CHAPTER   I 

THE  ADRIATIC  COAST  OF  ITALY— RIMINI— THE 
ITALIAN  DESPOTS 

The  eastern  shores  of  Italy  do  not  offer  to  the 
mere  tourist  the  attractions  of  the  Ligurian 
Riviera.  There  is  no  Monte  Carlo  where  fortunes 
can  be  made  only  to  be  lost,  no  Casino  for  the 
butterfly  of  fashion,  there  are  no  smart  hotels 
with  long  bills  for  luxuries  that  one  could  well 
do  without,  no  gay  promenades  with  gardens  and 
bandstands.  The  coast  is  lashed  by  the  wild 
Adriatic,  here  casting  up  mire  and  dirt,  very 
different  from  the  crystal  depths  and  transcendent 
azure  of  the  same  sea  on  the  rocky  Dalmatian 
shores  opposite.  It  is  a  rough  sea  to  navigate, 
as  Horace  frequently  reminds  us.  Lydia  tells 
her  lover  he  is  more  passionate  than  the  naughty 
Adriatic,  the  poets  generally  give  it  a  bad  name, 
and  after  many  long  journeys  upon  it,  I  can  testify 
that  it  still  lives  up  to  its  ancient  reputation. 


I 


2  '  SAN  MARINO  [Ch.  I. 

For  those,  however,  who  have  no  taste  for 
places  of  fashionable  resort,  there  is  no  part  of 
Italy  that  offers  more  attractions,  not  only  by  its 
historical  associations,  but  by  the  many  interest- 
ing monuments  of  art  in  which  it  abounds. 

From  the  lagoons  of  Venice  southward  the 
coast  is  low  and  flat,  a  watery  land,  intersected 
by  the  numerous  mouths  of  the  Po  and  the  Adige, 
whose  delta  is  pushed  out  well  into  the  sea.  The 
Apennines  lie  far  away,  and  there  is  a  wide  ex- 
panse of  flat  country  before  it  reaches  the  foot  of 
the  isolated  volcanic  mass  of  the  Euganean  Hills 
and  Monte  Venda,  where,  in  the  little  village 
street  of  Arqua,  Petrarch  lies  in  his  sarcophagus 
of  red  marble.  It  is  not  till  we  have  passed 
Ravenna  and  her  pine-clad  shores,  and  crossed 
the  Rubicon  into  Umbria  that  the  Apennines 
again  approach  the  seaboard.  Even  at  Rimini 
and  Pesaro  there  is  still  a  considerable  expanse 
of  low  land  between  the  hills  and  the  sea,  and  it  is 
not  till  the  mighty  rock  of  Ancona  is  reached  that 
the  mountains  come  actually  down  to  the  coast. 

From  Rimini,  which  lies  a  little  way  within 
the  Umbrian  border,  distant  views  may  be  had  of 
romantic  and  strangely  shaped  mountain  masses 
in  the  interior,  on  one  of  which  is  seated  the  tiny 
republic  of  San  Marino,  the  home  of  freedom  and 
autocracy  from  the  days  of  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  and    now    our    gallant    ally ;    for    San 


Ch.  L]  SAN  MARINO  3 

Marino  has  entered  into  the  present  world's 
struggle  and  declared  war  on  Austria,  the 
hereditary  foe.  The  little  army  of  forty  men 
mentioned  in  Murray's  Guide  of  1863  had  grown 
to  the  respectable  number  of  two  thousand  at  the 
time  of  Mr.  Theodore  Bent's  visit  in  1877,^  and 
I  have  no  doubt  it  will  give  a  good  account  of 
itself  in  the  present  war. 

Of  all  the  many  commonwealths  that  flour- 
ished in  Italy  after  the  fall  of  the  great  central 
power,  San  Marino  alone,  with  the  exception  of 
Venice,  did  not  come  under  the  rule  of  what  the 
Greeks  called  a  Tyrant,  but  preserved  its  com- 
munal estate  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  and 
down  to  this  day.  The  Dukes  of  Urbino,  within 
whose  Duchy  the  little  commonwealth  was  en- 
closed, were  its  Protectors,  and  undertook  to 
accord  ''all  possible  aid  and  favour  in  the 
maintenance  of  its  independence  and  freedom." 
In  return  the  Republic  engaged  itself  to  regard 
the  friends  and  foes  of  the  Duke  as  their  own, 
and  to  pay  him  due  respect  as  their  Protector. 

Proud  of  their  independence,  the  Sammarinesi 
addressed  the  Queen  of  the  Adriatic  as  ''our  very 
dear  sister,  the  most  serene  Republic  of  Venice." 
The  simplicity  of  their  manners  is  illustrated  by 
the  story  of  a  Venetian  who  carried  an  appeal  to 

^  A  Freak  of  Freedom^  or  the  Republic  of  San  Marino^  by  J.  T.  Bent, 
honorary  citizen  of  the  same. 


4  RIMINI  [Ch.  I. 

one  of  the  Captains  or  Consuls  of  San  Marino, 
whom  he  found  treading  grapes  in  his  vineyard, 
and  was  promptly  righted,  and  who  afterwards 
spent  months  in  recovering  a  debt  in  the  courts 
at  Venice ;  whence  it  passed  into  a  proverb  that 
a  simple  grape-treader  of  San  Marino  is  worth 
far  more  than  ten  big-wigs  at  Venice.^ 

S.  Marino,  the  founder  of  this  little  state, 
was  a  stonemason  from  Arbe,  an  island  in  the 
Gulf  of  Quarnero,  of  which  I  have  the  happiest 
recollections,  who  retired  to  these  solitudes  at 
the  time  of  Diocletian's  persecution,  and  founded 
not  the  usual  monastery  but  a  republic,  to  be 
free  and  independent  of  all  men,  as  he  expressed 
it  in  his  dying  instructions. 

The  little  capital  stands  on  a  volcanic  hill  of 
2635  f^^t>  ^rid  on  other  scarcely  accessible  pin- 
nacles of  rock,  something  like  the  convents  of 
Meteora  in  Greece,  are  perched  the  little  towns  of 
Maiola  and  San  Leo,  the  last  named  on  the  ancient 
Mons  Feretrius,  the  mediaeval  Montefeltro,  that 
gave  its  name  to  a  county,  ruled  by  a  famous 
family  of  which  we  shall  have  much  to  say. 

Except  for  the  monuments  it  contains  of 
Roman  and  mediaeval  greatness,  Rimini  is  a  dull 
uninviting  town  of  rather  mean  streets,  like 
Ravenna,  which  also  is  a  shabby  town  with 
little   general    picturesqueness.     At   one   end   is 

^  Bent,  op.  cit,  p.  260. 


Ch.  I.]  RIMINI  5 

the  Roman  bridge,  over  which  the  town  is 
entered  by  the  old  Via  Emilia,  which  comes 
from  Piacenza,  Parma,  and  Bologna,  and  is 
joined  a  little  way  off  by  the  road  from  Ravenna. 
At  the  other  end  is  the  Roman  arch,  by  which 
the  road  to  Rome,  the  ancient  Via  Flaminia, 
leaves  it.  On  the  flat  sandy  shore  is  a  Stabili- 
mento  dei  Bagni  built  on  a  vast  scale  and 
seemingly  out  of  proportion  to  the  old  city, 
which  may  have  its  season  of  gaiety,  but  at  the 
time  of  our  visit  in  October  was  closed,  deserted, 
and  melancholy.  There  is  a  little  harbour,  gay 
with  the  painted  fishing  craft  of  the  Adriatic,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river  Marecchio,  which  flows 
under  the  arches  of  the  Roman  bridge,  and  this 
is  the  most  cheerful  spot  of  modern  Rimini, 
otherwise  a  dull  town. 

The  bridge  of  five  arches  is  said  to  have  been 
begun  by  Augustus  the  year  before  his  death, 
and  to  have  been  finished  by  Tiberius,  a.d.  20. 
From  the  bridge  the  Corso  Augusto  leads  in  a 
straight  line  to  the  Porta  Romana,  the  Roman 
arch,  which  commemorates  the  gratitude  of  the 
Senate  and  people  to  Augustus  for  the  restoration 
of  the  Via  Flaminia,  B.C.  27.  It  is  on  a  grand 
scale,  and  the  architecture  presents  many  irregu- 
larities, showing  that  Classic  architects  worked 
with  greater  liberty  than  the  modern  slaves  of 
Vitruvius.     Two   Corinthian  columns  flank  the 


6  RIMINI  [Ch.  I 

archway  and  carry  an  entablature  which  is  broken 
forward  over  them.  The  pediment,  however,  does 
not  spring  from  them,  but  lies  back  on  the  wall 
face,  and  entirely  between  these  two  projections 
(Plate  IL).  In  the  cornice  the  corona  is  entirely 
omitted,  and  the  cymatium  runs  horizontally  along 
the  chord  of  the  tympanum  as  well  as  on  the  raking 
pediment.  The  upper  part  has  been  added  to  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  is  finished  with  the  forked 
battlements  of  Italian  military  science.  These 
alterations  and  additions  have  disturbed  the 
dedicatory  inscription,  which  is  imperfect  and 
disarranged,  but  one  can  still  read  in  curious 
spelling  : 

.  .  .  CELEBERRIMEIS  ITALIAE  VIEIS  .  .  .  LEIS. 

Our  visits  to  this  part  of  Italy  were  unfor- 
tunate in  the  matter  of  weather,  being  rather  too 
late  in  the  year.  The  country  at  the  head  of  the 
Adriatic  has,  I  believe,  the  heaviest  rainfall  in 
Europe,  and  in  the  late  autumn  wet  weather  is 
prevalent.  Travellers  would  do  well  to  come  to 
these  parts  in  spring  or  early  summer,  though  in 
the  mountainous  interior  it  is  probably  never  too 
hot  at  any  time.  There  is  no  distinctive  costume 
to  be  seen  till  one  gets  farther  down  the  coast,  but 
the  peasants  wear  a  good  deal  of  nice  jewellery, 
of  which  we  bought  some  in  a  bric-a-brac  shop. 
An  old  lady,  seeing  what  we  were  after,  ran  home 


t'LATE    n. 


RIMINI. 
Porta  Romana. 


t  To  face  p.  6. 


Ch.  L]  RIMINI  7 

to  get  some  of  her  own,  and  finally  sold  us  a 
ring  off  her  finger.  These  diversions  served  to 
pass  a  wet  afternoon,  and  an  obliging  waiter  did 
the  honours  of  the  hotel  and  showed  us  behind 
a  shutter  in  one  of  the  bedrooms  a  really  inter- 
esting fourteenth-century  fresco,  which  he  would 
have  it  was  a  genuine  work  by  Giotto. 

The  great  interest  of  Rimini  centres  upon 
the  DuoMO  of  S.  Francesco,  where  Sigismondo 
Pandolfo  Malatesta,  Lord  of  Rimini,  in  1450 
employed  Leo  Battista  Alberti  to  encase  a  church 
of  ordinary  Italian  Gothic  in  the  new  manner ; 
for  the  Renaissance  was  then  carrying  everything 
before  it,  and  Gothic  had  had  its  day.  Behind 
Alberti's  mask  of  Classic  work  may  still  be  seen 
the  Gothic  side  windows  of  simple  tracery,  and 
in  the  inside  the  nave  arches  are  pointed,  though 
the  piers  on  which  they  rest  are  panelled  and 
sculptured  in  the  new  style.  Alberti's  work  is 
extremely  delicate  and  refined,  and  has  still  about 
it  something  of  the  freedom  and  individuality 
of  the  older  Gothic,  not  yet  stiffened  into 
Palladianism.  It  was  never  finished,  for  Sigis- 
mondo's  troubled  career  ended  in  misfortune, 
and  his  schemes,  whether  of  policy  or  of  art, 
were  doomed  to  failure.  To  judge  from  a  medal, 
on  the  reverse  of  which  is  the  representation  of 
the  church  as  it  was  to  have  been,  Alberti's 
design  included  a  dome  of  magnificent  propor- 


8  RIMINI  [Ch.  I. 

tions  over  the  crossing,  and  a  fine  facade  of 
which  only  the  lower  storey  and  a  fragment  of 
the  upper  are  completed.  The  south  flank  of  the 
nave,  however,  is  finished,  and  consists  of  an 
arcade  of  piers  and  arches,  forming  a  sort  of 
peristyle  detached  from  the  main  wall ;  and  in 
the  intercolumniations  are  the  sarcophagi  of 
poets,  orators,  philosophers,  and  other  eminent 
men  whom  Sigismondo  had  gathered  round  him, 
and  among  whom  he  intended  his  own  bones  to 
be  laid.  These,  together  with  the  piers  them- 
selves, are  raised  on  a  high  podium,  along  the 
top  of  which  runs  a  beautifully  designed  frieze 
of  scrolls,  intermixed  with  shields  and  badges. 
The  effect  of  this  is  extremely  good,  and  had 
Alberti's  design  been  finished  the  church  would 
have  been  one  of  the  finest  gems  of  the  early  and 
most  interesting  period  of  the  Renaissance.^ 

The  Duomo  goes  by  the  name  of  Tempio 
dei  Malatesta,  and  Sigismondo  seems  to  have 
deliberately  given  a  pagan  air  to  what  he  did. 
The  little  sculptured  panels  of  the  piers  in  the 
interior  might  be  imitated  from  Classical  intaglios, 
and  have  no  religious  significance.  His  arms, 
quartered  with  the  interlaced  initials  of  himself 
and  his  mistress — perhaps  his  wife — Isotta, 
appear  in  all  parts  of  the  church,  together  with  the 

^  D'Agincourt  devotes  plate  li.  of  his  Architecture  to   plans   and 
elevations  of  the  Duomo  of  Rimini. 


?LATE    III. 


T.  G.  J. 


RIMINI. 
Monument  of  Isotta. 


[  To  face  p. 


Ch.  L]  RIMINI  9 

elephants,  his  crest  and  supporters.  Isotta  herself 
has  a  monument  in  a  side  chapel  (Plate  III.) 
J  bearing  the  date  1450,  though  it  appears  that 
-  she  did  not  die  till  twenty  years  later.  The  in- 
scription seems  to  imply  her  deification  in  the 
Roman  fashion.  Sigismondo  himself  died  in 
1468,  in  his  fifty-second  year,  and  lies  entombed 
within  the  church. 

The  family  of  Malatesta,  who  became  Lords 
of  Rimini  in  the  thirteenth  century,  came  origin- 
ally from  Verrucchio,  a  grim  castle  near  San 
Marino,  and  like  that  city  and  San  Leo  perched  on 
one  of  the  volcanic  peaks  of  the  district.  Ver- 
rucchio was  the  scene  of  the  tragedy  of  Francesca 
and  Paolo  da  Rimini  in  1288.  Dante,  describing 
the  state  of  Romagna  to  the  shade  of  Guido  da 
Montefeltro,  speaks  of  the  elder  and  younger 
Malatesta  of  his  time  in  no  favourable  terms : 

E'l  mastin  vecchio,  e'l  nuovo  da  Verrucchio, 
Che  fecer  di  Montagna  il  mal  governo, 
La,  dove  soglion,  fan  de'  denti  succhio. 

/«/,  xxvii.^45. 

Among  all  the  petty  princelings  who  reigned 
over  the  cities  of  Romagna  and  Central  Italy 
Sigismondo  may  not  have  been  the  worst,  but  he 
must  be  placed  very  low  down  in  the  scale,  and 
none  perhaps  did  more  than  he  to  involve  that 
unhappy  country  in  constant  strife  and  misery. 
In  the  fifteenth  century  most  of  the  independent 


lo  THE  ITALIAN  DESPOTS  [Ch.  I. 

commonwealths,  great  and  small,  which  had  arisen 
in  Italy  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  and 
still  earlier,  and  had  been  strong  enough  to  defy 
the  distant  and  rarely  enforced  power  of  the 
Empire,  had  fallen  under  the  rule  of  some  great 
family ;  and  democracy,  true  to  Aristotle's  cycle, 
had  lapsed  into  tyranny.  There  were  the  Visconti, 
and  after  them  the  Sforza  at  Milan  ;  the  Medici 
were  slowly  but  surely  strangling  liberty  at 
Florence  ;  the  D'Este  ruled  at  Ferrara  ;  at  Verona 
the  dynasty  of  the  Scala  had  only  just  expired, 
and  had  been  succeeded  by  the  Venetian  republic  ; 
the  Gonzaga  possesssed  Mantua ;  the  Vitelli 
ruled  at  Citta  di  Castello ;  the  Baglioni  at 
Perugia ;  the  Bentivogli  at  Bologna  ;  a  cadet  of 
the  Malatesta  and  afterwards  a  Sforza  at  Pesaro  ; 
the  Varana  at  Camerino ;  and  the  Montefeltrini 
at  Urbino. 

Italy  being  included,  nominally  at  all  events, 
in  the  Empire,  most  of  the  Dukes  and  Counts  of 
these  principalities  held  them  as  fiefs  of  the 
Emperor.  Those  of  La  Romagna,  which  ex- 
tended from  the  Duchy  of  Modena  to  the  Adriatic, 
and  those  of  Umbria  were  held  as  fiefs  of  the 
Papacy,  which  claimed  them  as  part  of  the  Patri- 
mony of  St.  Peter.  The  rights  of  the  Empire 
gave  little  trouble,  but  papal  greed  was  always 
on  the  watch  to  extinguish  feudal  rights  and  in- 
corporate the  little  principalities  into  the  States 


Ch.  I.]  THE  ITALIAN  DESPOTS  ii 

of  the  Church,  except  when  the  nepotism  of  Popes 
like  Sixtus  iv.,  Alexander  vi.,  Julius  ii.,  and  Leo  x. 
carved  out  of  them  petty  kingdoms  for  their  own 
families. 

Each  of  these  little  courts  vied  with  its  neigh- 
bours in  splendour.  The  princes  lived  in  a  style 
far  beyond  all  proportion  to  the  natural  wealth  of 
their  territory  or  the  means  of  their  subjects. 
"Absolute  power,"  says  Sismondi,  **  leads  to  ex- 
pensive vices,"  and  each  petty  despot  indulged 
himself  as  if  he  had  been  an  emperor.  His 
revenue  being  unequal  to  his  means  of  defence, 
his  vanity,  and  his  pleasures,  he  was  driven  to 
various  unworthy  contrivances  to  wring  from  his 
oppressed  people  the  means  of  indulging  himself. 
One  plan  which  the  tyrants  adopted,  according  to 
Macchiavelli,  was  to  impose  fines  for  certain  things 
which  were  not  regularly  inflicted,  but  collected 
suddenly  after  a  period  of  apparent  but  carefully 
calculated  negligence,  during  which  they  had 
amounted  to  a  considerable  sum.  But  the  way 
in  which  most  of  them  increased  their  income  was 
by  stipendiary  service.  Romagna  and  La  Marca 
were  the  great  nurseries  of  the  mercenary  armies 
of  those  times,  and  the  lords  of  these  petty  states 
were  trained  to  arms  as  a  profession  and  a  means 
of  livelihood.  Their  military  qualities  gave  a 
disproportionate  importance  to  their  diminutive 
states.     There  was  seldom  a  war  in  Central  Italy 


12  THE  ITALIAN  DESPOTS  [Ch.  I. 

when  there  was  not  a  Malatesta,  a  D'Este,  a 
Montefeltro,  or  a  Vitelli  on  one  side  or  the  other. 
Venice  drew  her  best  troops  from  the  March  and 
the  Romagna,  as  well  as  the  officers  who  com- 
manded them ;  and  many  of  the  Princes  were 
engaged  by  a  retaining  fee  not  necessarily  to  fight 
on  her  side,  but  at  all  events  not  to  serve  against 
her.  It  was  said  that  from  this  district  ''  Captains 
could  be  found  for  all  the  Princes  of  the  world  ; 
that  from  thence  went  forth  that  company  of 
St.  George  with  which  Alberigo  of  Barbiano  had 
exterminated  the  foreign  mercenaries,  and  revived 
the  fame  of  Italian  arms.  They  were  the  same 
race  and  stock  of  men  who  had  once  contributed 
so  much  to  the  establishment  of  the  Roman 
Empire."^ 

The  bands  oicondottieri,  or  mercenary  soldiers 
which  each  princeling  raised  for  service  under 
whatever  state  would  buy  him,  brought  wealth  to 
his  exchequer,  but  wrought  infinite  misery  to 
the  country.  For  they  paid  themselves  not  only 
by  their  legitimate — if  it  can  be  called  legitimate 
— warfare,  but  by  marauding  attacks  on  their 
neighbours  and  by  the  sack  of  the  towns  that  fell 
into  their  hands,  for  pillage  was  considered  the 

1  Ranke,  vol.  i.  book  iv.  He  quotes  Lorenzo  Priuli,  Relazioni  a.d. 
ijS6 :  "  Lo  stato  pieno  di  viveri .  .  .  e  d'huomini  bellicosi.  Pareno 
tutti  questi  popoli  nati  et  allevati  nella  milizia.  E  molto  presto  si 
metteva  insieme  molta  buona  gente  toccando  il  tamburro." 


i 


Ch.  L]  the  ITALIAN  DESPOTS  13 

soldier's  privilege.  The  cynical  indifference  with 
which  they  were  ready  to  take  service  on  either 
side  in  any  quarrel  is  almost  amusing.  It 
mattered  no  more  to  them  than  it  does  to  a 
barrister  whether  he  is  briefed  for  plaintiff  or 
defendant.  In  1469  we  find  Federigo  da  Monte- 
feltro,  Count  of  Urbino,  with  the  aid  of  Florence 
defending  his  son-in-law  Roberto  Malatesta,  who 
had  proclaimed  himself  Lord  of  Rimini  on  the 
death  of  his  father  Sigismondo,  against  Pope 
Paul  II.  But  in  1474  he  is  fighting  for  the  Pope 
Sixtus  IV.  against  Florence.  Four  years  later  he 
and  his  son-in-law  Roberto  are  still  for  the  Pope 
against  Florence,  but  in  the  year  following 
Roberto  appears  as  the  Florentine  General,  and 
defeats  the  papal  forces  at  Lake  Thrasymene. 
Still  more  wonderful,  in  1482  we  find  Federigo 
and  Roberto  opposed  to  one  another,  Federigo 
being  now  for  Florence  and  Roberto  for  the  Pope. 
Naturally  these  professional  soldiers  took  no 
interest  in  the  cause  they  fought  for.  Their 
object  was  not  victory,  which  might  have  spoilt 
business,  but  to  take  prisoners  for  ransom.  Each 
hero  reflected  that  very  likely  he  might  be  fight- 
ing to-morrow  for  the  side  against  which  he  was 
serving  to-day.  The  battles  were  often  bloodless. 
Macchiavelli  never  loses  an  opportunity  of  sneer- 
ing at  the  mercenaries  of  that  age.  He  describes 
the  battle  of  Molinella,  which  lasted  half  a  day, 


14  THE  ITALIAN  DESPOTS  [Ch.  I. 

neither  side  giving  way  ;  yet  nobody  was  killed, 
and  only  a  few  prisoners  were  taken  on  either 
side.  This  is  probably  an  exaggeration,  for  some 
authorities  speak  of  it  as  a  sanguinary  affair,  but 
it  is  a  characteristic  touch.  A  still  more  charac- 
teristic incident  of  this  battle  is  recorded  by  a 
Milanese  writer  ;  he  says  that  Count  Federigo  of 
Urbino,  who  commanded  for  the  Duke  of  Milan, 
towards  the  end  of  the  conflict  meeting  Alessandro 
Sforza,  his  father-in-law,  who  was  fighting  on  the 
other  side,  exclaimed,  ''  Oh  !  my  lord  and  father, 
we  have  already  done  enough  "  ;  to  which  Sforza 
replied,  ''This  I  leave  to  you  to  determine"; 
whereupon  both  commanders  called  off  their 
forces.^  When  the  Duke  of  Milan  threatened  to 
behead  Federigo  for  not  having  pressed  on  and 
won  the  victory,  the  Count  replied  that  he  defied 
any  one  who  understood  the  art  of  war  to  say  he 
had  not  proceeded  after  the  rules  of  military 
tactics.  Their  employers,  who  naturally  wanted 
to  win,  cared  little  for  the  rules  of  military  tactics, 
and  took  a  different  view  from  the  mercenary 
soldiers,  and  Federigo  narrowly  escaped  the 
Duke's  vengeance.  When  Guidobaldo,  the  second 
Duke  of  Urbino,  was  besieged  in  Bibbiena  by  the 
Florentines  under  Vitelli  he  fell  ill,  and  Vitelli 
let  him  go  home  to  his  Duchy.  The  Florentines 
naturally  were  indignant,  and  when  Paolo  Vitelli 

^  Corio,  cited  Dennistoun's  Dukes  of  Urbino^  vol.  i.  p.  179. 


Ch.  I.]  THE  ITALIAN  DESPOTS  15 

had  made  one  or  two  similar  mistakes  they 
tortured  and  killed  him.  Carmagnola  offended 
the  Venetians  by  similar  leniency  towards  his 
prisoners,  and  was  punished  in  the  same  way.^ 
But  these  petty  wars,  of  which  it  is  impossible  to 
keep  the  details  in  one's  head,  or  to  remember  on 
which  side  or  for  what  cause  each  commander 
was  fighting,  and  which  Milton  might  have  called 
battles  of  kites  and  crows  more  deservedly  than 
those  of  our  Saxon  ancestors,  though  they  brought 
glory  and  money  to  the  condottieri  caused  the 
utmost  misery  to  the  unhappy  non-combatants, 
whose  lands  were  ravaged  and  their  homes 
violated.  In  1388  the  Florentines  reproached 
Pandolfo  Malatesta  of  Rimini  for  taking  to  a 
trade  so  discreditable  to  one  of  his  descent,  and 
cautioned  him  not  to  meddle  with  any  of  their 
subjects  and  friends  ;  upon  which  he  justified 
himself  by  saying  he  had  spent  30,000  florins  in 
forming  his  band,  and  could  not  maintain  them 
without  making  raids  on  the  country  around 
him. 

These  numerous  little  courts,  however,  found 
time  in  the  intervals  of  fighting  for  more  peace- 

^  He  had  ordered  the  release  of  his  prisoners  "as  was  usual," 
secondo  Puso.  Manzoni,  who  wrote  a  tragedy  on  the  fate  of  Carmagnola, 
quotes  in  his  preface  Andrea  Redusio's  explanation  of  this  habit  of 
releasing  prisoners  :  "  Egli  I'attribuisce  al  timore  che  i  soldati  avevano 
di  veder  presto  finite  le  guerre,  e  di  sentirsi  gridare  dai  popoli  alia  zappa 
i  soldati." 


i6  THE  ITALIAN  DESPOTS  [Ch.  I. 

ful  triumphs.  Those  of  Urbino,  Pesaro,  Ferrara, 
and  Rimini  were  among  the  most  brilliant  in 
Europe.  They  rivalled  each  other  in  the  encour- 
agement of  art  and  literature,  in  the  patronage  of 
artists  and  learned  men,  and  contributed  largely 
to  the  general  advancement  of  the  humanities. 
Of  the  part  played  by  the  Counts  of  Urbino  we 
shall  speak  hereafter.  The  temple  at  Rimini,  and 
the  associations  connected  with  it,  show  the  share 
taken  by  Sigismondo  Pandolfo  Malatesta  in  ad- 
vancing art  and  encouraging  men  of  letters  in  his 
dominions.  High  mental  culture,  however,  is  un- 
fortunately compatible  with  the  lowest  standard  of 
morality.  It  has  been  said  that ''  an  Italian  prince 
in  those  days  durst  not  be  a  barbarian.  A  murderer 
perhaps,  stained  with  the  most  flagitious  crimes, 
he  might  be ;  but  he  must  seek  his  absolution  in 
works  of  magnificence,  he  must  atone  for  his 
outrages  against  public  morality  by  his  devotion 
to  the  cause  of  learning  and  homage  to  the  public 
taste."  ^  The  crimes  of  the  Italian  despots  have 
become  proverbial.  Every  family  had  its  share 
of  assassinations  ;  scarcely  any  man  of  mark  died 
in  his  bed  without  suspicion  of  poison,  whether 
well  founded  or  not.  There  were  frightful  stories 
of  revenges,  stopping  short  of  nothing  but  ex- 
termination of  the  hated  family.  Oliverotto 
Eufreducci  was  brought  up  as  an  adopted  son 

^  Mariotti,  cited  Dennistoun,  vol.  i.  p.  182. 


Ch.  L]  THE  ITALIAN  DESPOTS  17 

by  his  maternal  uncle,  Giovanni  de  Fogliani, 
Lord  of  Fermo,  who  apprenticed  him  to  Vitelli 
to  learn  the  art  of  war.  Having  served  with 
distinction  under  Cesare  Borgia  he  proposed  to 
visit  his  uncle  and  benefactor,  and  arrived  with 
a  hundred  horsemen.  He  was  received  with 
honour  and  entertained  at  a  banquet  to  which 
all  the  notables  of  Fermo  were  invited.  In  the 
midst  of  the  festivity  Oliverotto  introduced  his 
hundred  men  and  massacred  his  uncle  and  his 
guests,  and  made  himself  Lord  of  Fermo.  His 
own  turn  came  in  1502,  when  he  was  strangled 
by  Cesare  Borgia  at  Sinigaglia,  with  the  two 
Orsini  and  Vitelli.  Sismondi  tells  a  still  more 
ghastly  story.  Arcimboldo,  Archbishop  of  Milan 
and  Cardinal,  going  as  legate  to  Perugia  and 
Umbria,  found  there  a  gentleman  who,  after 
smashing  against  a  wall  the  heads  of  his  enemy's 
children,  and  strangling  their  mother  who  was 
pregnant,  nailed  a  surviving  infant  to  the  door, 
as  gamekeepers  do  with  vermin,  and  this  outrage 
was  not  thought  in  the  neighbourhood  to  be 
anything  remarkable.  Sigismondo  Malatesta, 
who  surrounded  himself  with  artists  and  men  of 
letters,  and  grouped  their  tombs  round  his  own 
destined  sepulchre  at  Rimini,  married  three 
times.  His  first  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Car- 
magnola,  whom  he  repudiated  after  her  father's 
tragical  death.     His   second   wife  was  Ginevra, 


i8  THE  ITALIAN  DESPOTS  [Ch.  I. 

daughter  of  the  Marquis  of  Ferrara,  whom  he 
is  said  to  have  poisoned.  He  then  married 
Polissena,  daughter  of  Francesco  Sforza,  whom 
he  strangled  in  order  to  give  himself  wholly  to 
his  mistress  Isotta,  whose  tomb  we  saw  at 
Rimini,  and  whose  initials,  lovingly  intertwined 
with  his  own,  awake  our  sympathy  till  we  learn 
the  story  of  blood  by  which  their  union  was 
cemented.  Isotta  seems  to  have  been  a  woman 
of  talent  and  conduct,  and  to  have  tamed  the 
monster  and  been  faithful  to  him  and  influenced 
him  for  good.  It  is  doubtful  whether  they  were 
ever  married.  She  survived  Sigismondo,  but 
was  dispossessed  of  the  government  of  Rimini  by 
Roberto  Malatesta,  one  of  Sigismondo's  bastard 
sons.  The  whole  of  Sigismondo's  life  was  occu- 
pied in  warfare  with  the  Montefeltrini  of  Urbino. 
After  twenty-four  years  of  strife,  at  the  beginning 
of  which  the  Malatesta  owned  the  whole  coast 
from  Cervia  and  Cesena  to  the  Fiumicino  near 
Ancona,  Sigismondo  was  left  with  little  more 
than  Rimini,  the  rest  having  fallen  chiefly  to  his 
principal  enemies,  a  Montefeltrino  or  a  Sforza. 

The  hatred  which  the  oppressions  and 
cruelties  of  these  petty  princes  provoked  ac- 
counts in  great  measure  for  the  rapid  success 
of  Cesare  Borgia  in  making  himself  master  of 
Romagna  and  Umbria.  The  princes  who  were 
his  victims  were  scarcely  less  criminal  and  blood- 


Ch.  I.] 


THE  ITALIAN  DESPOTS 


19 


Stained  than  himself,  and  his  treachery  and  out- 
rages were  directed  against  them  and  not  against 
their  people.  He  was  sagacious  enough  to  see 
that  by  governing  his  new  subjects  well  and 
leniently  he  would  win  them  to  his  side.  Under 
his  rule  justice  and  public  safety  were  assured, 
factions  were  repressed,  and  all  classes  were 
protected  and  prosperous.  Consequently,  says 
Guicciardini,  no  Romagnole  could  contemplate 
without  fear  the  return  of  his  old  lord. 


Fig.  I. — Medallion  of  Sigismondo  Pandolfo  Malatesta. 


CHAPTER   II 
PESARO 

The  railway  from  Rimini  to  Pesaro  follows  the 
coast-line,  and  runs  parallel  to  the  old  Via 
Flaminia,  which  led  from  Ariminum  to  Pisaurum, 
and  ran  onward  to  Ancona  and  Rome.  The 
station  at  Pesaro  is  some  way  from  the  town, 
and  we  rattled  through  dark  gloomy  streets  till 
at  last  we  were  set  down  at  a  cavernous  portal 
which  we  were  told  was  our  inn.  By  the  light 
of  a  single  lamp,  hidden  behind  a  corner  of  the 
wall,  we  entered  a  great  vaulted  basement  smelling 
of  wine-lees  and  encumbered  with  casks.  Pick- 
ing our  way  over  the  pavement,  foul  with  litter 
and  cow-dung,  we  reached  the  foot  of  an  immense 
staircase  worthy  of  a  giant's  castle,  ascending 
which  we  succeeded  with  some  trouble  in  finding 
two  peasant  women  who  brought  the  landlord. 
Then  followed  an  ugly  dispute  with  a  brigand, 
who  had  mounted  the  box  of  our  carriage  unin- 
vited, and  refused  to  go  till  we  had  paid  him 
three  and  a  half  lire  for  handling  our  luggage.  I 
referred  the  matter  to  the  arbitration  of  the  land- 
lord, a  good  easy  man  who  was  half  afraid  of  the 


Ch.  II.]  PESARO  21 

rascal,  and  did  not  much  like  the  office.  How- 
ever, in  the  end  the  demand  was  abated,  and 
when  the  man  had  departed  i\it  padrone  relieved 
his  mind.  ''What  could  I  do?"  said  he. 
"What  you  offered  him  was  more  than  enough. 
They  are  all  of  them  birbanti,  birbanti,  birbanti. 
They  are  assassins.  The  other  day  one  of  them 
drew  his  knife  on  a  Swiss  gentleman,  who 
knocked  him  down  with  his  stick,  and  gave  him 
^ma  bella  basto7^ata!' 

As  soon  as  our  ruffled  feelings  were  calmed, 
and  we  had  got  rid  of  our  importunate  driver, 
who  never  ceased  imploring  us  to  engage  him 
and  his  carriage  to  take  us  to  Urbino,  we  ex- 
amined our  apartments.  These  too,  like  the 
staircase,  were  on  a  gigantic  scale.  The  room  in 
which  my  wife  and  I  were  lodged  was  45  feet 
square,  and  the  single  candle  by  which  it  was 
illumined  projected  gigantic  shadows  of  ourselves 
on  a  vaulted  ceiling  at  an  immense  height  above 
us.  One  might  almost  as  well  have  slept  under 
the  dome  of  St.  Paul's.  A  friend  who  was 
travelling  with  us  was  lodged  in  another  princely 
chamber  of  the  same  dimensions.  On  further 
acquaintance,  however,  we  became  so  much 
attached  to  the  Hotel  Zongo  as  to  return  to  it  at 
the  end  of  our  visit  to  Urbino,  and  the  shy  land- 
lord proved  to  be  a  very  jovial  dog,  and  was  of 
good  service  to  us  in  our  travels  afterwards. 


2  2  PESARO  [Ch.  II. 

Pesaro  belonged  to  a  branch  of  the  Malatesta 
family,  who  seem  to  have  made  it  a  practice  to 
divide  and  distribute  among  themselves  their 
various  lordships.  In  1444  Pesaro  was  held  by 
Galeazzo  Malatesta,  from  whom  his  cousin  Sigis- 
mondo  Pandolfo  tried  to  take  it ;  but  he  was 
prevented  by  Federigo  da  Montefeltro,  Duke  of 
Urbino.  In  1445  Federigo  proposed  to  Fran- 
cesco Sforza,  afterwards  Duke  of  Milan,  to  buy 
out  Galeazzo,  Federigo  acquiring  Fossombrone 
and  Sforza  taking  Pesaro.  This  was  so  done, 
and  Francesco  established  his  brother  Alessandro 
at  Pesaro,  where  the  Sforza  ruled  till  eventually, 
in  15 1 2,  the  fief  was  included  in  the  Duchy  of 
Urbino. 

On  one  side  of  the  Piazza  is  the  old  Ducal 
Palace,  now  the  Prefettura  (Plate  IV.),  with  an 
imposing  and  successful  facade  in  which,  though 
it  seems  a  simple  design,  there  is  a  good  deal 
of  subtle  contrivance.  The  lower  storey  has  an 
arcade  of  six  arches,  all  alike  except  that  the  one 
opposite  the  entrance  to  the  cortile  has  decorated 
mouldings.  This  places  a  pillar  in  the  middle. 
To  have  carried  the  six  divisions  up  into  the 
upper  storey,  with  a  pier  in  the  centre  would 
have  been  intolerable ;  consequently  there  are 
five  windows  only  over  the  six  arches,  which 
brings  a  window  with  a  ringhiera  into  the 
middle,  and   puts   it   all   right.     The   facade   is 


u 

< 
1-1 

C    2 
<     < 

w    ;:) 

CL      Q 

W 

a: 
H 


Ch.  II.]  PESARO  23 

finished  with  a  deep  and  widely  projecting  cor- 
nice that  throws  a  fine  shadow.  The  archi- 
tectural features  are  in  stone,  apparently  Istrian, 
and  in  the  upper  storey  the  wall  between  them  is 
plastered.  The  interior  cortile  is  plain,  but  has 
a  good  doorway  at  the  far  end.  The  windows 
bear  the  initials  of  Guidobaldo  11.,  the  fourth 
Duke  of  Urbino,  who  reigned  from  1538  to  1574. 
They  occur  also  in  other  parts  of  the  building. 

G.  V.  II.  V.  D.  IIII. 

The  first  floor  facing  the  Piazza  is  occupied 
by  the  Great  Hall,  which  has  a  splendid  ceiling, 
deeply  coffered  and  painted  and  gilt.  Though  it 
has  been  touched  up  by  the  hand  of  no  less  an 
artist  than  our  worthy  host  of  the  Albergo  Zongo, 
as  he  told  me  with  honest  pride,  it  remains  pretty 
much  in  its  original  state,  but  for  a  little  decay 
and  dirt.  Among  the  emblems  in  the  ceiling  is 
the  oak  tree,  the  badge  of  the  Delia  Rovere 
family  to  which  the  later  Dukes  of  Urbino  be- 
longed. 

There  are  several  fair  doorways  of  Italian 
Gothic  in  the  churches,  which  are  not  otherwise 
remarkable.^  The  doorway  of  S.  Domenico,  a 
disused  church  in  the  Piazza,  bears  the  date 
1395.  In  this  church  was  about  to  be  estab- 
lished, at  the  time  of  our  visit,  a  musical  con- 

^  Illustrations  of  them  will  be  found  in  Italia  Artistica. 


24  PESARO  [Ch.  II. 

servatorio  for  which  money  had  been  left  by 
Rossini,  who  was  a  native  of  Pesaro,  and  has 
a  statue  there  to  his  memory. 

Memories,  too,  survive  at  Pesaro  of  Bernardo 
and  Torquato  Tasso.  Bernardo  came  hither 
about  1556  or  1560  with  his  son,  then  twelve  or 
thirteen  years  old,  to  try  and  get  a  living  for 
himself  and  help  for  his  ruined  master,  the  Prince 
of  Salerno.  Hither  again  came  Torquato  after  his 
father's  death,  to  his  patroness  Lucrezia  d'Este, 
the  first  wife  of  Francesco  Maria  11.,  son  and 
heir  of  Guidobaldo  11.,  and  he  followed  her  to  her 
brother's  court  at  Ferrara  when  she  separated 
from  her  husband.  Four  years  later,  in  1576,  his 
madness  first  showed  itself. 

The  town  possesses  a  splendid  collection  of 
the  majolica  ware  of  Pesaro,  Gubbio,  Urbino, 
and  Castel  Durante,  which  can  be  studied  to 
advantage  as  well  here  as  anywhere.  Pesaro 
still  produces  admirable  majolica,  but  it  is  only 
a  copy  of  the  old  fabric,  and  has  no  originality. 
Some  of  the  pieces  are  deceptively  imitated,  and 
might  take  in  the  unwary.  They  have  a  fine 
lustre.  We  went  over  one  of  the  factories,  which 
was  on  a  very  modest  scale,  with  only  two  or 
three  painters  at  work.  Charming  little  pieces 
of  pottery,  made  for  use  by  the  peasants  in  their 
cottages,  can  be  bought  in  the  markets  for  a  few 
pence  each. 


Ch.  II.]  PESARO  25 

Although  the  Apennines  are  still  some  miles 
distant,  the  outskirts  of  Pesaro  are  hilly,  and  the 
ground  much  broken.  On  one  summit  a  little 
way  out  of  the  town  is  the  Villa  Imperiale,  a 
palace  of  the  Sforza  and  afterwards  of  the  Dukes 
of  Urbino.  Vasari  has  much  to  say  about  it  in 
his  life  of  Girolamo  Genga,  a  painter  and  archi- 
tect of  Urbino,  and  a  friend  of  Raffaelle.  Guido- 
baldo  I,  employed  him  in  painting  caparisons 
of  horses,  which  were  then  in  fashion,  and 
Francesco  Maria  i.  in  making  triumphal  arches 
and  theatrical  apparatus  and  scenery  for  his 
nuptials  with  Leonora  Gonzaga.  Thus  do  the 
great  men  of  the  earth  patronize  genius,  like 
Piero  dei  Medici,  who  set  Michelangelo  to  model 
a  snow  man. 

Genga  followed  Duke  Francesco  Maria  i.  into 
exile  during  the  Medicean  usurpation,  and  painted 
pictures  at  Cesena  and  Forli.  On  the  Duke's  re- 
storation in  1 52 1,  Genga  was  employed  to  restore 
the  old  palace  of  the  Sforza  on  the  hill  of  the 
Imperiale,  which,  says  Vasari,  ''  under  the  direc- 
tion and  design  of  Genga  was  adorned  by  paint- 
ings of  the  history  and  deeds  of  the  Duke,  by 
Francesco  di  Forli,  Raffaelle  dal  Borgo,  painters 
of  good  fame,  and  by  Camillo  of  Mantua,  who 
had  rare  ability  in  doing  landscapes  and  foliage, 
and  among  the  rest  Bronzino  of  Florence  also 
worked  there  as  a  lad.  The  Dossi  of  Ferrara 
3 


26  PESARO  [Ch.  II. 

were  also  brought  thither,  and  a  chamber  was 
allotted  to  them  to  paint,  but  when  it  was  finished 
the  Duke  did  not  like  it,  and  had  it  thrown  down 
to  the  ground,  and  done  again  by  those  above 
named.  Genga  made  there  also  the  tower  120 
feet  high,  with  thirteen  staircases  of  wood  well 
contrived  and  hidden  in  the  walls." 

''The  Duke  therefore,  seeing  he  had  so  rare  a 
genius,  thought  to  make  at  the  said  place  of  the 
Imperiale,  near  the  old  palace,  another  new  palace, 
and  so  he  made  that  which  is  now  to  be  seen, 
which  being  a  very  beautiful  palace,  and  well 
planned,  full  of  chambers,  and  colonnades,  and 
courts,  and  loggie,  and  of  fountains  and  delight- 
ful gardens.  Princes  never  pass  that  way  without 
going  to  see  it ;  so  that  it  deserved  to  be  visited 
by  Pope  Paul  iii.  when  going  to  Bologna  with  all 
his  court,  who  remained  entirely  satisfied  with  it." 

Fired  with  enthusiasm  by  this  description,  we 
started  one  afternoon  to  see  the  wonders  of  the 
Imperiale.  We  left  the  town  by  a  huge  gateway 
in  the  fortifications  with  which  Genga  surrounded 
the  city,  and  crossed  the  little  river  which  forms 
the  port  of  Pesaro.  An  exciseman  at  the  gate 
directed  us  amiss,  and  instead  of  turning  up  at 
once  to  the  right  we  followed  the  road  towards 
Rimini  and  had  to  make  a  long  detour  up  steep 
and  muddy  lanes  round  the  Villa  Vittoria,  where 
the  unhappy  Queen  Caroline  of  England   once 


Ch.  II.J  PESARO  27 

resided.  From  the  rising  ground  we  had  lovely 
views  inland,  where  ridge  behind  ridge  of  distant 
Apennines  rose  in  purple  and  violet  hues  beyond 
the  level  plain  at  our  feet. 

Like  most  Italian  buildings  of  the  kind,  the 
Imperiale  has  no  exterior  attractions.  The  out- 
side of  an  Italian  villa  never  seems  to  have  been 
considered.  Where  in  France  or  England  we 
should  have  had  quaint  gables,  turrets,  oriels, 
and  high  roofs,  in  Italy  you  have  nothing  but  a 
square  barrack-like  mass,  with  here  and  there 
perhaps  a  stunted  tower,  and  plain  whitened 
brick  walls  full  of  unstopped  scaffold-holes. 
And  yet  somehow  these  buildings  seem  exactly 
suited  to  their  surroundings,  and  nothing  else 
would  harmonize  with  the  landscape  so  well. 

The  older  and  newer  palaces  are  easily  distin- 
guished from  one  another.  The  older  is  a  quad- 
rangular building  on  the  brow  of  the  steep  hill, 
while  the  newer  is  on  the  slope  above,  and  only 
touches  the  other  at  an  angle,  where  the  two  are 
joined  by  a  bridge.  Genga  s  great  tower  is  at- 
tached to  the  older  palace,  which  we  entered  by 
an  archway  with  the  escutcheon  of  the  Sforza 
family,  and  the  inscription 

ALEXANDER  FORTIA 

MCCCCLXVII 

Inside  is  a  small  cortile  surrounded  by  graceful 


28  PESARO  [Ch.  II. 

arcades,  and  grouped  round  a  marble  well  in  the 
corner  were  the  farm  labourers  washing  from 
their  legs  and  feet  the  blood-red  stain  of  the 
grapes  they  had  been  treading.  For  the  Im- 
periale  is  now  a  farmhouse,  in  which  a  few 
rooms  furnished  in  a  homely  way  are  reserved 
for  the  owner,  Prince  Albani  of  Milan,  when  he 
visits  his  property.  The  only  residents  were  the 
farmer  and  his  wife,  the  latter  a  pretty  country 
lass  who  did  the  honours  of  the  palace  very 
gracefully. 

The  ground  floor  of  the  older  building  is 
quite  dismantled  and  used  only  for  farm  pur- 
poses, but  there  are  some  good  chimney-pieces 
still  there.  A  plain  staircase  leads  to  the  first 
floor,  where  in  the  rooms  round  the  cortile  are 
the  mural  paintings  by  Rafifaelle  dal  Borgo,  or 
del  Colle,  and  others  mentioned  above.  Of 
these  fresco  paintings  we  expected  to  find 
remains  only,  for  the  guide-books  speak  of  their 
decay,  but  we  did  not  find  even  that,  for  they 
had  all  been  lately  repainted  by  Gennari  of 
Pesaro,  an  artist  who  was  only  just  dead  at  the 
time  of  our  visit.  A  few  of  the  rooms  have 
decorated  ceilings,  one  of  which  I  drew :  it  had 
panels  of  red  and  blue  alternately,  divided  by 
ribs  carved  with  oak  leaves  painted  white  and 
gilt,  and  bearing  on  the  blue  ground  the  initials 
F.  M.  and  LE,  for  Francesco  Maria  i.  and  his 


Ch.  II.J 


PESARO 


29 


wife  Leonora.  On  the  red  panels  were  several 
devices,  and  among  them  a  representation  of 
the  pen  still  in  use  in  Italy  for  securing  oxen 
to  be  shod. 

A  bridge  leads  to  the  newer  palace  built  by 
Genga  for  the  Duchess  Leonora  as'  a  surprise 
for  her  husband  on  his  return  from  the  wars. 
Her  dedication  reads  thus  : 

FR.  MARIAE  DVCI  METAVRENSIVM  A  BELLIS  REDEVNTI 
LEONORA  VXOR  ANIMI  EIVS  CAVSA  VILLAM  EXAEDIFICAVIT 

The  date  would  be  after  the  Duke's  return  from 
exile,  on  the  death  of  his  old  enemy  Leo  x.  in 
1 52 1.  In  the  interval  of  fifty-four  years  between 
the  building  of  the  old  and  the  new  palace,  the 
early  Italian  Renais- 
sance had  developed 
into  a  more  complete 
imitation  of  Classic 
architecture.  But 
though  the  charm  and 
poetry  of  the  mediae- 
val styles  that  still 
clung  to  the  new 
mode  on  its  first  de- 
parture had  by  this  time  been  lost,  there  is 
much  to  admire  in  Genga's  work.  The  rooms 
are  picturesquely  planned ;  the  chapel  when 
furnished  must  have  been  very  pretty,  and  the 
effect  unusual,  for  the  plan  is  unique  (Fig.  2). 


Sketch  not  to  scale. 
Fig.  2. 


I 


30 


PESARO 


[Ch.  II. 


The  floors  are  of  small  unglazed  bricks,  stamped 
with  geometrical  patterns,  and  laid  within  bands 
of  white  marble  (Fig.  3).  In  some  cases  the 
marble  bands  form  a  spiral  line,  and  in  others  a 
labyrinth.  It  would  have  been  better  had  the 
bricks  been  glazed.  The  ceilings  of  the  piano 
nobile  were  domed  in  stone  or  brick,  and  the 
backs  of  the  domes  stand  up  in  the  oddest  way 

through  the  floors  of  the 
rooms  above,  which  were 
probably  used  by  servants 
uncomfortably  enough. 

This  newer  palace  is 
quite  dismantled,  and 
though  weathertight  is 
uninhabitable,  even  the 
doors  being  removed. 
Being  built  on  the  slope 
of  the  hill  the  upper 
floor  opens  at  the  end  of 
the  wing  on  a  level  with  a  charming  terraced 
garden,  which  forms  the  fourth  side  of  the  newer 
quadrangle.  It  was  full  of  simple  flowers 
growing  in  the  wildest  profusion,  of  which  our 
guide  presented  a  handful  alia  Signora. 

A  lovely  though  muddy  walk  down  an  um- 
brageous lane  took  us  by  a  much  shorter  way  to 
the  city  gate. 

Our    friendly    landlord    at    the    Zongo,     at 


Fig.  3. 


Ch.  II.]  PESARO  31 

parting,  furnished  us  with  notes  of  recommenda- 
tion, as  a  most  rispettabile  famiglia,  to  the 
hotels  at  Urbino  and  Fossombrone.  These 
introductions  with  which  Italian  innkeepers 
sometimes  furnish  you,  if  you  have  put  yourself 
on  friendly  terms  with  them,  as  all  sensible 
travellers  will  do,  are  of  great  service  in  securing 
attention,  and  I  think  moderating  charges. 


CHAPTER   III 
FANO— ANCONA 

From  Pesaro  it  is  a  pleasant  drive  of  about  an 
hour  along  the  coast  to  Fano.  On  the  right  are 
considerable  cliffs  of  loose  shale  not  amounting 
to  rock,  and  in  the  distance  may  be  seen  the 
towers  of  Fano  at  the  water  s  edge,  and  beyond 
them  the  great  mountain  behind  Ancona. 

Fano,  the  ancient  Fanum  Fortunae,  which 
Vitruvius  calls  Colonia  Julia  Fanestris,  now  a 
quiet  country  town  with  humble  provision  for 
visitors,  was  of  more  consequence  in  Roman 
times.  It  still  boasts  a  Roman  arch,  erected  in 
honour  of  Augustus,  and  it  had  a  basilica  built 
by  Vitruvius,  of  which  he  gives  a  description  in 
his  fifth  book.  It  was  a  covered  hall  120  feet 
by  60,  with  columns  round  it  50  feet  high,  four 
at  the  end  and  eight  at  the  side,  counting  in 
each  case  those  at  the  angles ;  but  the  two 
middle  columns  of  one  side  were  omitted  to  leave 
open  the  front  of  the  temple  of  Augustus,  where 
was  the  tribunal  in  an  apse  at  the  far  end.  Two 
storeys  of  porticos  20  feet  wide  surrounded  the 


Ch.  III.]  FANO  33 

central  hall,  not,  however,  reaching  so  high  as  the 
columns,  but  leaving  12  feet  like  a  clerestory  in 
the  intercolumniations  for  light  above  their  lean- 
to  roofs.^     Nothing  of  this  basilica  now  remains. 

Vitruvius  s  design  for  his  basilica  violates 
most  of  his  own  more  formal  precepts,  and  is 
quite  out  of  all  order  according  to  the  pedantic 
rules  of  the  neo-Classic  schools  of  the  Renaissance. 
Viollet  le  Due  wittily  observes  that  "half  a 
century  ago  Vitruvius  would  not  have  obtained 
for  his  design  for  the  Fano  Basilica  any  mention 
at  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts,  What  do  I  say  ? 
He  would  have  been  excluded  from  the  com- 
petition ! — sent  down  to  the  lowest  form  to  learn 
Roman  architecture  from  Vignola  or  Palladio. 
Not  put  a  complete  entablature  on  the  columns ! 
Surmount  their  capitals  with  wood  lintels  and 
with  timber  framing  resting  on  pads !  Back  the 
columns  with  pilasters  !     What  heresy  !  "  ^ 

Fano  contains  several  churches,  not  of  re- 
markable interest,  with  good  pictures  chiefly  by 
later  masters.  The  Palazzo  della  Ragione,  now 
turned    into   a  theatre,  is  an  interesting   build- 

1  "Reliqua  spatia  inter  parastatarum  et  columnarum  trabes,  per 
intercolumnia  luminibus  sunt  relicta."  The  parastatae  are  responds 
attached  to  the  back  of  the  great  columns.  These  were  in  two  heights  : 
the  lower,  20  feet  high,  to  carry  the  floor  of  the  upper  porticus,  the 
upper,  18  feet  high,  to  carry  its  lean-to  roof  against  the  column,  which 
leaves  12  feet  of  the  50-foot  column  exposed. 

2  V.  le  Due,  Lectures  on  Architecture^  Part  I.  p.  150. 


34  FANO— ANCONA  [Ch.  III. 

ing,  with  a  Renaissance  campanile,  a  Gothic 
arcade  of  round  arches  below,  and  a  range  of  four- 
light  windows  under  round  arches  above.  The 
Palazzo  del  Comune  has  some  excellent  windows 
with  traceries  of  brick  and  terra-cotta,  and  a 
picturesque  loggia. 

Passing  Sinigaglia,  with  its  grim  memories 
of  Cesare  Borgia  and  the  massacre  of  his  former 
confederates,  where  the  guide-books  did  not 
promise  much  to  interest  us,  our  next  point 
was  Ancona. 

Ancona,  an  ancient  colony  of  Dorian  Greeks 
from  Syracuse,  was  an  independent  republic 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  with  maritime  preten- 
sions that  at  one  time  threatened  to  rival  those 
of  Venice.  Its  liberties  were  extinguished  in 
1532,  when  it  fell  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Popes.  Curved  like  a  bent  arm — ayKcov — round 
its  splendid  natural  harbour,  with  tier  above  tier 
of  fine  buildings  rising  as  an  amphitheatre  on 
the  sides  of  the  lofty  hills  that  here  reach  the 
coast-line,  Ancona  has  something  of  the  state- 
liness  of  Genoa.  On  the  topmost  peak  stands 
the  ancient  Cathedral  of  S.  Ciriaco,  full  of  rude 
marble  screens  and  balustrades  adorned  with 
sculptures  of  semi-Byzantine  art,  and  preceded 
by  a  grand  arched  portal  designed  by  Margaritone 
of  Arezzo  in  the  thirteenth  century.  From  this 
summit  the  eye  commands   a   vast   expanse   of 


Ch.  III.]  ANCONA  35 

coast-line  and  blue  water ;  one  almost  hopes  to 
catch  the  faint  outline  of  the  distant  Velebic 
mountains  that  line  the  coast  of  Dalmatia : 
and  this  prospect,  as  we  viewed  it  in  1881,  first 
inspired  me  with  the  resolution  to  visit  that 
country,  then  little  known  and  only  imperfectly 
described. 

The  port  is  bordered  by  spacious  quays,  and 
embraced  by  hospitable  moles.  On  the  land 
end  of  the  nearest  of  them  stands  the  Arch  of 
Trajan,  the  most  beautiful  of  all  Roman  arches, 
though  robbed  of  its  ancient  bronzes.  The 
stately  effect  of  the  long  flight  of  steps  that  lead 
up  to  it,  and  the  unusual  loftiness  of  its  propor- 
tion, make  it  very  imposing.  The  material  is 
white  marble ;  and  time  has  toned  it  down  to 
that  beautiful  apricot  yellow  which  it  only  attains 
in  a  southern  clime.     (Plate  I.,  Frontispiece.) 

Overshadowed  by  lofty  buildings,  which  sadly 
smother  it,  is  the  pretty  little  Church  of  S.  Maria- 
in-Piazza,  which,  though  built  in  12 10,  is  still  in 
the  Romanesque  style,  with  tiers  of  arcading, 
Pisan  fashion,  in  its  little  facade,  and  other 
ornaments  in  the  earlier  manner.  Over  the 
entrance  are  some  rhyming  Leonine  hexameters, 
which  give  the  date  and  the  name  of  the  artist 
Philippus.  The  poet  has  ingeniously  sur- 
mounted the  difficulty  of  the  Pope's  name,  for 
Innocent  can  no  more  be  got  into  a  hexameter 


36  ANCONA  [Ch.  III. 

line  than  the  little  town  which  Horace  passed 
on  his  way  to  Brundusium,  quod  versu  dicere 
non  est — 

Ad  matrem  Xristi  que  templo  presidet  isti 
Qui  legis  ingredere  veniam  pregando  merere 
Cum  bis  centenus  claudisset  tempora  denus 
Annus  Millenus  floreret  Papa  Serenus 
Imperiique  decus  princeps  Otto  sumeret  equus 
Hec  Philippe  pie  decorasti  templa  Marie.^ 

Ancona  ^possesses  a  group  of  buildings  by  an 
architect  with  whose  name  and  work  I  became 
familiar  on  the  other  side  of  the  Adriatic. 
Giorgio  Orsini,  of  a  Zaratine  family  that  claimed 
descent  from  the  noble  Roman  house,  was  the 
architect  of  the  eastern  part,  and  the  upper  part 
of  the  rest  of  the  Duomo  of  Sebenico.  He  did 
not  live  to  finish  it,  but  to  him  must  be  attributed 
the  marvellous  and  unique  covering  of  the  church 
by  a  barrel  vault  of  marble  slabs  visible  both 
within  and  without.^  His  engagement  there  was 
made  in  1441  and  renewed  in  1446,  but  the  work 
was  suspended  from  1448  till  1471  for  want  of 
funds.  In  the  interval  he  was  actively  engaged 
on  the  Rector's  Palace  at  Ragusa,  at  first  in 
concert  with  Michelozzi  and  afterwards  by  him- 
self, and  also  at  Spalato  and  Pago.     In  1450  we 

^  Innocent  in.,  Pope,  ii 98-1 216  ;  Otto  iv.,  Emperor,  1209-18. 
2  Vide  my  Dalmatian  the  Quarnero  and  Istria^  vol.  i.  pp.  369,  395, 
etc.,  ii.  331,  iii.  242. 


Ch.  III.]  ANCONA  37 

find  him  at  Ancona,  at  Recanati,  and  at  Cittanova 
in  the  Marches. 

In  the  Archives  of  the  Republic,  to  which  the 
courteous  officials  allowed  me  free  access,  I  found 
a  full  account  of  Giorgio's  engagement  at  Ancona, 
together  with  the  contract  between  him  and  the 
Anziani,  or  Senators.  The  Anconitans  being 
very  prosperous  commercially  both  by  sea  and  by 
land,  resolved  in  the  year  1443  to  build  an  Ex- 
change where  merchants  and  citizens  could  meet 
conveniently  for  business.  The  site  chosen  was 
next  the  house  of  Dionisio  Benincasa  and  be- 
tween the  High  Street  and  the  sea,  where  till 
then  there  had  been  a  precipitous  and  dangerous 
place,  down  which  Francesco  Bessarion  fell  and 
broke  his  head,  of  which  accident  his  face  bore 
the  marks  to  his  dying  day.  The  ground-floor 
storey  was  built  and  roofed  by  Giovanni  Sodo  of 
Ancona,  a  very  clever  architect,  who  won  great 
praise  for  his  ingenuity  in  making  the  beams  of 
several  short  pieces,  there  being  no  room  to  draw 
long  timbers  to  the  site.  In  this  state  the  Loggia 
remained  till  1450. 

In  that  year  there  arrived  in  Ancona  a  famous 
master  mason, ^  Maestro  Giorgio  of  Sebenico,  who 
was  engaged  on  the  facade  of  the  house  ^  of 
Dionisio  Benincasa  next  door  to  the  Loggia.     It 

1  "Un   dignissimo  maestro  tagliapietra  per  nome  M"  Giorgio  di 
Sibinico." 


38  ANCONA  [Ch.  III. 

came  into  his  head  that  he  would  like  to  build 
the  facade  of  the  Loggia,  as  well  for  the  honour 
of  the  thing  as  for  '*  cupidity  of  gain."  So  he 
made  a  design  which  Dionisio  took  to  the 
Anziani,  who  all  admired  it,  but  there  was  no 
money  to  carry  it  out.  However,  Dionisio  and 
other  merchants,  anxious  for  the  adornment  of 
the  town  and  the  convenience  of  a  place  of  busi- 
ness, advanced  the  money  on  the  security  of  the 
Customs,  "and  so,"  says  the  annalist,  ''the  work 
was  done:  adorned  with  foliage  and  beautiful 
figures,  with  the  horse  and  armed  cavalier  which 
is  the  badge  and  the  true  arms  of  the  Anconitans. 
It  was  begun,  as  has  been  already  said,  and  was 
finished  in  1459."     (Plate  V.) 

''This  M°  Giorgio  was  he  who  made  the 
very  fine  portal  of  Sco  Francesco  di  le  Scale,  and 
who  began  the  portal  of  S.  Agostino ;  but  he  was 
interrupted  by  death,  and  could  not  finish  it,  so 
that  the  work,"  says  the  writer,  "still  remains 
imperfect."^ 

Giorgio  Orsini  died  in  1475,  and,  so  far  as  I 
can  [ascertain,  at  Sebenico,  where  he  had  a  house 
on  the  doorway  of  which  he  carved  the  bear,  the 
badge  of  his  family,  and  the  mallet  and  chisels 
and  other  implements  of  his  craft.^ 

1  From  the  MSS.  of  Lazz.  dei  Bernabei,  written  in  1492,  and  the 
Cronaca  Anconitana  di  Camillo  Albertini^  in  the  Archivio  of  Ancona. 

2  Illustrated  in  my  Dalmatian  the  Quarnero  and  Istria^  vol.  i.  p.  406. 


'      '  t^LATE   V 


ANCONA. 
Loggia  dei  Mercanti. 


[To /ace  p.  38. 


Ch.  III.]  ANCONA  39 

The  contract  with  the  Anziani  of  Ancona  is 
interesting,  as  it  shows  that  some  sort  of  draw- 
ing was  embodied  in  the  agreement.  Giorgio 
was  to  have  900  golden  ducats,  for  which  at  his 
own  risk,  danger,  and  fortune  he  was  to  do  the 
work,  except  that  the  employers  were  to  provide 
scaffolding,  lime,  lead,  and  bronze,  and  the  stone 
for  filling  in  between  two  existing  columns. 
Also  he  is  to  make  in  the  fashion  shown  on  his 
drawing  the  ''idols,"  carved  life-size,  with  the 
horse,  great  and  fine,  with  the  arms  of  the 
Comune  in  the  places  drawn  on  the  said  paper. 
He  was  to  finish  within  two  years,  and  to  have 
instalments  of  200  ducats  at  specified  stages  of 
the  work,  and  the  balance  when  the  whole  was 
passed  by  the  appointed  judges. 

Dionisio  gives  security  in  a  hundred  ducats 
for  Giorgio's  proper  performance  of  his  contract. 

The  Loggia  dei  Mercanti  has  had  the 
lower  storey  remodelled  in  late  Classic.  The 
upper  storeys,  which  are  Giorgio's  work,  are  in 
rather  a  coarse  kind  of  florid  Gothic,  the  details 
being  very  poor.  The  windows  have  had  Gothic 
tracery  which  is  cut  out,  and  the  openings  are 
blocked,  and  this  spoils  the  design  a  good  deal. 
There  are  many  features  both  in  the  Loggia  and 
in  the  doorways  of  S.  Francesco  and  S.  Agostino 
that  resemble  details  at  Sebenico,  especially  a 
cornice,  which  is  found  in  all  these  three  build- 


40  ANCONA  [Ch.  III. 

ings,  consisting  of  two  tiers  of  leaves  blown  as  it 
were  in  reverse  directions.^ 

It  is  curious  that  Giorgio's  work  here  in  the 
Loggia,  and  at  S.  Francesco  (Plate  VI.)  and 
S.  Agostino,  which  was  finished  by  another  hand 
after  his  death,  should  be  so  much  more  Gothic 
than  the  work  he  designed  ten  years  before  at 
Sebenico.  The  employment  of  Giorgio  on  both 
sides  of  the  Adriatic  is  only  one  instance  of  the 
connexion  between  Ancona  and  Dalmatia  during 
the  Middle  Ages.  The  Anconitans  shared  with 
their  opposite  neighbours  their  jealousy  of  the 
growing  power  of  Venice.  In  1171,  when 
Manuel  tried  to  re-establish  the  Roman  empire 
over  Italy,  he  poured  his  gold  into  Ancona  to 
secure  a  convenient  entry  into  the  Peninsula,  and 
the  Venetians,  who  regarded  the  Anconitans  as 
dangerous  rivals,^ and  ''hated  them  with  a  special 
hatred,"  sent  a  powerful  fleet  and  captured  five  of 
their  galleys.  It  was  to  Ancona,  and  not  to 
Venice,  that  the  men  of  Spalato  applied  for  a 
Podesta,  in   1239,  when  they  resolved  to  put  the 

1  This  cornice  at  Sebenico  I  attribute  to  Antonio  di  Paolo,  the 
architect  who  built  the  nave  up  to  the  top  of  the  arcades  between  1430 
and  1 44 1.  Giorgio  seems  to  have  copied  it  here  in  his  buildings  at 
Ancona.  It  was  also  copied  in  a  chapel  of  the  cathedral  at  Trail  by 
Alecxi  of  Durazzo  in  1467.  The  execution  both  here  and  at  Traii  is 
inferior  to  that  at  Sebenico. 

2  "  Hoc  tempore  Anconitani  Emanuelis  obedientes  imperio  Venetos 
ut  sibi  aemulos  coeperunt  habere."     Dandolo,  ix.  xv.  17. 


Plate  VI. 


m 


L 


V^ 


v.^ 


AN  CON  A. 
Portal  of  S.  Francesco. 


\^To  face  p.  40. 


I 


Ch.  III.]  ANCONA  41 

city  under  a  Latin  magistrate,  and  to  govern  it 
on  the  Latin  model.  The  Anconitans  sent  them 
Gargano  degli  Arsacidi,  who  led  them  to  victory- 
over  the  Almissan  pirates.  And  when  Lewis 
the  Great  of  Hungary  attacked  Venice  in  Dal- 
matia  in  1345,  Ancona  joined  him  in  opposition 
to  her  hereditary  rival,  an  alliance  which  caused 
the  Venetians  serious  concern. 

Ancona  has  many  charms,  in  her  venerable 
buildings ;  in  the  steep  streets, — half  street  and 
half  staircase, — with  lovely  downward  peeps  of 
town  and  harbour ;  in  the  gay  market  where  they 
gave  us  so  many  delicious  figs  for  a  penny  that 
we  had  to  cry  *'  Enough  !  "  and  in  the  port  with 
its  shipping,  where,  however,  there  seemed  to  be 
less  trade  than  one  would  have  liked  to  see  in 
the  finest  harbour  on  this  side  of  Italy.  We 
visited  Ancona  twice  at  an  interval  of  several 
years,  and  left  it  each  time  with  regret. 


CHAPTER  IV 
LORETO 

We  left  Ancona  early  for  Loreto,  to  which  place 
the  railway  takes  you  in  about  three-quarters  of 
an  hour.  The  town  stands  on  high  ground,  in- 
land from  the  railway,  presenting  an  imposing 
mass  of  building,  partly  consisting  of  the  great 
church  and  its  adjuncts  and  partly  of  the  huge 
palace  of  the  Governor.  The  church  has  apsidal 
ends  to  both  choir  and  transepts,  and  is  finished 
with  a  bold  machicolated  cornice  ;  and  but  for  its 
dome  it  might  be  mistaken  for  a  mediaeval  castle 
with  three  large  semicircular  bastions.  Omni- 
buses and  open  carriages  were  waiting  in  abund- 
ance at  the  station,  and  no  sooner  did  we  appear 
than  the  drivers  opened  upon  us  like  a  pack  of 
hounds  in  full  cry,  each  trying  to  secure  us  by 
shouting  down  his  neighbour.  Beggars  too 
made  the  round  of  the  carriages  as  soon  as  the 
passengers  were  seated,  some  with  bad  legs  or 
arms,  others  with  a  short  quantity  of  one  limb 
or  the  other,  but  there  were  not  so  many  as  I 
had  expected  in  so  holy  a  place.  In  the  papal 
time  they  may  have  driven  a  better  trade. 


Ch.  IV.]  LOHETO  43 

The  object  of  pilgrimage  to  Loreto  is  the 
Santa  Casa,  or  house  of  the  Holy  Family,  which 
it  is  said  angels  transported  from  Nazareth 
when  Acre,  the  last  Christian  stronghold  in 
Palestine,  fell  into  Moslem  hands.  They  first 
deposited  it  at  Tersatto,  near  Fiume,  at  the  head 
of  the  Gulf  of  Quarnero,  where  there  is  still  a 
pilgrimage  church  to  which  the  people  flock  in 
thousands  to  worship  in  the  place  where  the 
Holy  House  used  to  be  but  is  no  longer. 
Streams  of  Croat  peasants,  men,  women,  and 
children,  in  their  picturesque  national  costume, 
may  be  met  daily  singing  hymns  as  they  climb 
the  five  hundred  steps  that  lead  from  Fiume  to 
the  sacred  enclosure,  where  by  shuffling  ungrace- 
fully on  their  knees  round  the  empty  site  of  the 
Santa  Casa  they  have  worn  a  channel  in  the 
floor,  as  the  pilgrims  have  done  at  Loreto  round 
the  actual  structure.^  Tersatto,  however,  did  not 
satisfy  the  angelic  bearers,  for  after  three  years 
and  seven  months  they  took  the  Holy  House 
away  and  set  it  on  the  shore  near  where  it  now 
stands  ;  and  then  at  a  third  remove  in  1295  placed 
it  on  the  hill  as  we  see  it,  on  ground  as  some  say 
belonging  to  a  widow  named  Laureta,  or,  accord- 
ing to  others,  in  a  lauretmn  or  grove  of  laurels. 

The  Abbate  Fortis,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
writes :  ''In  our  day  this  legend  is  not  believed 

^  Vide  my  Dalmatia,  the  Quarnero  and  Istria^  vol.  iii.  p.  i66. 


44  LORETO  [Ch.  IV. 

nor  maintained  even  at  Rome;  but  the  Croats 
are  two  hundred  years  behind  us  in  these 
matters."  ^  Another  Roman  Catholic  clergyman 
writing  in  1802  says  :  ''  Many  men  of  reflexion  in 
Italy,  and  indeed  within  the  precincts  of  Loretto 
itself,  consider  this  wonderful  story  as  an  idle 
tale,  or  at  best  a  pious  dream.  They  suppose 
the  holy  house  to  have  been  a  cottage  or  building 
long  buried  in  a  pathless  forest,  and  unnoticed  in 
a  country  turned  almost  into  a  desert  by  a  suc- 
cession of  civil  wars,  invasions,  and  revolutions 
during  the  space  of  ten  centuries."  ^  In  recent 
years  this  cult  of  the  Santa  Casa  was  debated  at 
some  length  in  an  English  magazine,  but  the 
apologists  did  not  seem  to  regard  it  as  more 
than  an  aid  to  devotion,  even  though  the  story 
be  untrue — in  fact,  a  pious  fraud.  How  far  it  is 
really  conducive  to  piety,  so  long  as  it  is  believed 
in,  it  is  hard  to  say,  but  at  all  events  these  holy 
places  gather  together  a  very  dubious  assembly 
of  beggars  and  impostors.^  To  many,  as  to 
Chaucer's  company,  a  pilgrimage  serves  as  an 
excuse  for  a  holiday,  though  I  saw  at  Loreto 
some  pilgrims  who  seemed  lost  in  pious  ecstasy. 
As  we  climbed  the  hill  the  view  opened  out 

1  Fortis,  Viaggio  in  Dalmazia. 

2  Eustace's  Classical  Tour  through  Italy. 

3  The  term  "  Lorette,"  for  women  of  loose  character,  seems  to  refer 
to  the  quarter  where  they  lived  in  Paris,  near  the  Church  of  Notre-Dame 
de  Lorette. 


Ch.  IV.]  LORETO  45 

magnificently.  The  country  was  rich  and  well 
cultivated  almost  beyond  anything  I  had  seen  in 
Italy.  Below  lay  the  sea,  blue  and  placid ;  and 
the  great  mountain  that  divided  us  from  Ancona 
towered  nobly  above  the  landscape.  Little  towns 
and  castles  were  perched  on  surrounding  hilltops  ; 
Osimo,  the  ancient  Auximum,  where  Belisarius 
narrowly  escaped  death  by  an  arrow  which  was 
intercepted  by  a  faithful  soldier ;  Castel-Fidardo, 
where  in  i860  on  i8th  September  the  Sardinians 
defeated  the  papal  troops  under  Lamoriciere,  and 
crowned  the  enterprise  by  which  Garibaldi  had 
set  free  the  kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies  from  the 
Bourbons. 

Inns  at  Loreto  at  the  time  of  our  visit  were 
very  primitive.  I  do  not  know  whether  they  are 
any  better  now.  We  went  to  the  one  that  was 
recommended  as  the  best,  but  though  we  had  a 
good  room  and  clean  beds,  the  rest  left  much  to 
be  desired.  There  was  no  regular  service,  but  a 
peasant  woman  came  in  to  do  the  rooms  and  shake 
up  the  bedding,  which  was  stuffed  with  the  leaves 
of  Indian  corn,  and  the  practice  was  to  pay  her  for 
her  attendance  with  a  few  pence  before  she  left. 

Outside  the  sacred  precincts  is  an  irregular 
piazza,  with  a  fountain  that  discharges  water 
through  the  mouths  of  crowing  cocks — a  com- 
pliment, I  suppose,  to  Cardinal  Galli,  whose 
name   appears   over   the   town   gate.      Entering 


46  LORETO  [Ch.  IV. 

through  the  Porta  Romana,  we  ascended  by  a 
steep  incline  to  the  ridge  of  the  hill,  where  we 
found  ourselves  in  a  narrow  street  that  runs 
right  and  left,  and  in  a  scene  of  indescribable 
bustle.  The  street  was  crowded  with  peasants 
in  the  gayest  gala  costume,  the  women  especially 
being  in  a  blaze  of  bright  colours.  Both  sides  of 
the  way  were  lined  with  shops  for  the  sale  of 
cheap  jewellery,  toys,  copies  of  the  sacred  image 
of  the  Madonna  of  Loreto,  strings  of  rosaries, 
drums,  tambourines,  artificial  flowers,  gaudy 
pictures  cheap  but  holy,  together  with  bright 
handkerchiefs  in  long  pieces  festooned  from  the 
ceiling,  brilliant  woollen  caps  such  as  the  men 
wear,  and  other  articles  too  various  to  mention, 
displaying  attractions  either  mundane  or  de- 
votional to  suit  the  taste  of  the  pilgrims,  each 
of  whom  buys  something  as  a  memorial  of  the 
pilgrimage,  which  is  taken  to  be  blessed  by  the 
priest  within  the  walls  of  the  Holy  House. 
Everything  was  cheap  and  tawdry,  the  only 
pretty  things  being  the  corone  or  rosaries,  of 
which  there  were  millions,  and  the  little  cups 
painted  with  a  rude  representation  of  the  sacred 
image,  and  made  with  clay  in  which  was  mingled 
polvere  di  Santa  Casa — dust  from  the  sweepings 
of  the  sacred  floor.  Of  these  we  bought  several. 
The  goods  overflowed  the  shops  and  were  spread 
out  on  stalls  in  the  street  as  well.     The  vendors 


Ch.  IV.]  LORETO  47 

were  smartly  dressed  women,  who  stood  in  the 
doorway  and  screamed  to  the  passers-by  to  come 
and  buy — buy — buy  !  It  was  Bunyan's  Vanity 
Fair  in  real  life. 

After  running  the  gauntlet  of  these  impor- 
tunities, and  escaping  from  this  hideous  babel 
and  from  the  importunities  of  various  more  or 
less  loathsome  beggars,  who  traded  on  a  well- 
assorted  stock  of  sores,  mutilations,  and  bodily 
infirmities  which  they  ruthlessly  displayed,  we 
arrived  at  the  Piazza  Madonna.  The  great 
church  faced  us ;  and  the  long  facade  of  the 
Governor's  Palace,  designed  by  Bramante,  with 
two  orders  of  arcading,  formed  the  left  side  of 
the  square.  The  west  front  of  the  church  is  not 
remarkable  except  for  its  splendid  bronze  doors 
by  Girolamo  Lombardi  and  his  pupils,  and 
Vanvitelli's  campanile  is  ill-designed  and  ugly ; 
but  on  entering  the  church  the  scene  that  met 
our  eyes  was  overpowering.  A  long  nave  of 
simple  Italian  arches  leads  up  to  the  central 
dome  under  which  stands  the  Santa  Casa,  within 
a  splendid  marble  casing  that  closes  the  view. 
On  the  steps  in  front  of  it  were  gorgeous  eccle- 
siastics officiating  at  the  altar,  but  far  more 
gorgeous  was  the  assisting  congregation.  The 
women  were  drilled  in  regular  ranks  across  the 
floor  from  side  to  side,  and  the  mass  of  colour 
they  presented  outdid  the  gayest  flower-bed.     On 


48  LORETO  [Ch.  IV. 

the  head  they  wore  brilliant  handkerchiefs  pinned 
and  turned  up  somewhat  in  the  Roman  fashion. 
Another  such  handkerchief  over  the  shoulders 
was  brought  loosely  round  in  front  over  the 
bosom,  showing  a  white  smock  of  homespun 
linen  at  the  neck,  with  elaborately  pleated  sleeves 
turned  up  at  the  elbow.  The  skirt  of  dark  striped 
stuff,  generally  indigo  and  crimson,  and  sometimes 
entirely  red,  was  very  short,  and  puffed  out  with 
immense  hoops  like  crinolines ;  the  waist  was 
quite  high  up,  almost  under  the  armpits,  with 
short  and  wide  embroidered  braces.  Woollen 
stockings  and — sad  to  say — modern  high-heeled 
boots  completed  their  attire.  They  wore  great 
ropes  of  coral  round  their  necks,  and  large 
gold  earrings,  some  of  them  of  curious  and 
antique  design,  and  on  their  fingers  large  rings, 
formed  of  convex  discs  of  thin  gold,  as  large 
almost  as  an  English  florin,  with  filigrana  and 
pearls  attached  by  wires,  such  as  a  man  at  Pesaro 
had  offered  us  for  twenty-five  lire  (Fig.  4). 

The  men  were  scarcely  less  splendid  than  the 
women.  Their  hair  was  cut  close,  and  their  ears 
were  adorned  with  earrings.  They  wore  a  waist- 
coat, or  rather  a  short  sleeveless  coat  of  crimson 
or  purple  cloth,  left  unbuttoned  to  expose  the 
embroidered  front  and  elaborately  pleated  sleeves 
of  their  home-spun  linen  shirts.  To  complete 
their  costume  they  should  have  worn  tmder  the 


Ch.  IV.]  LORETO  49 

waistcoat  a  white  smock-frock,  reaching  below 
the  knee,  but  we  did  not  see  very  many  of  these. 
The  great  beauty  of  the  generality  of  the  women, 
their  graceful  port,  the  stately  swimming  motion 
which  their  hooped  skirts  gave  to  their  gait,  and 
their  martial  arrangement  and  movement  as  in 
rank  behind  rank  they  retired  backwards  down  the 
whole  length  of  the  nave,  was  most  impressive. 
We  had  timed  our  visit  luckily,  for  October 


Fig.  4. 

is  the  great  month  for  pilgrimage  and  also  for 
marriages,  and  there  had  been  several  weddings 
that  morning. 

Mass  being  ended,  the  whole  congregation 
poured  itself  into  and  through  the  Holy  House, 
which  angels  had  brought  hither  to  convince  a 
sceptical  world.  It  has  four  doors,  two  on  a  side, 
but  only  three  were  open,  and  at  each  stood  a 
guard  with  a  drawn  sword  to  keep  the  struggling 
throng  of  devotees  in  something  like  order,  and 


50  LORETO  [Ch.  IV. 

prevent  accidents.  Every  now  and  then  a  priest 
emerged  from  one  of  the  doors,  his  hands  full  of 
rosaries,  bunches  of  artificial  flowers,  and  other 
trinkets  which  he  had  blessed  within  the  sacred 
walls,  and  now  returned  to  their  respective  owners 
to  be  taken  home  and  treasured  as  sacred  relics. 

After  this  ceremony  there  was  a  Messa 
Cantata  by  the  choir,  which,  like  the  papal 
choir  at  Rome,  consists  of  professional  male 
singers,  with  musici  for  trebles.  We  had  two 
chairs  placed  for  us  by  an  official  in  the  best 
place  for  hearing,  opposite  the  music  gallery. 
With  these  gentry  a  lira  or  two  outweighs  all 
scruples  of  orthodoxy,  and  the  faithful  were 
unceremoniously  pushed  out  of  the  way  to  make 
room  for  us.  The  scene  was  sufficiently  striking, 
with  the  densely  packed  crowd  below,  the  gor- 
geous priests  and  their  attendants  at  the  altar, 
and  the  singers  aloft  in  a  gallery  between  two 
of  the  pillars,  hanging  over  the  parapet  in  the 
intervals  of  the  music,  in  various  attitudes,  like 
the  figures  in  one  of  Veronese's  grand  composi- 
tions. But  the  music  disappointed  us.  The 
organ  was  bad,  and  everything  was  sung  in  an 
unfeeling  fortissimo.  Some  of  the  men  had  good 
voices,  but  I  heard  none  like  the  mysterious 
soprano  who  had  thrilled  me  through  and  through 
three  years  before  at  the  Festa  of  S.  Francesco 
in  the  dim  lower  church  at  Assisi. 


Ch.  IV.]  LORETO  51 

On  the  day  following  there  was  another  Messa 
Cantata  in  a  side  chapel,  which  we  went  to  hear, 
as  the  music  was  to  be  by  Palestrina.  We  talked 
to  the  singers  as  they  stood  waiting  in  the  aisle, 
and  they  spoke  of  Palestrina  with  reverence  ;  but 
they  sang  his  music  irreverently  enough,  at  full 
cry,  without  that  delicate  feeling  of  voice  for 
voice  that  makes  good  part-singing. 

The  Santa  Casa  stands  under  the  dome  in 
the  same  way  as  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  Jerusalem, 
which  no  doubt  set  the  pattern  for  it.  But  the 
marble  casing  which  encloses  it  is  so  large  as  to 
block  the  view  from  any  of  the  four  arms  of  the 
church,  and  it  looks  more  like  a  screen  than  a 
detached  building.  It  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
Renaissance,  designed  by  Bramante  with  exquisite 
detail,  and  sculptured  by  Andrea  Contucci,  the 
elder  Sansovino,  whose  work  began  in  15 13. 
He  was  assisted  by  Girolamo  Lombardo,  Bandi- 
nelli,  Giovanni  da  Bologna,  and  other  great 
artists.  Within  this  superb  casing  is  the  Santa 
Casa  itself,  a  dim  chamber  with  walls  of  rubble, 
stone,  and  brick,  black  and  polished  with  age  and 
smoke.  The  air  is  thick  and  close,  redolent  with 
odours  possibly  of  sanctity,  and  there  are  rows  of 
hanging  lamps  on  each  side  suspended  from  a 
vault  overhead,  the  smoke  from  which  does  not 
improve  the  atmosphere.  A  splendidly  furnished 
altar  with  lighted  candles  stands  clear  of  the  east 


52  LORETO  [Ch.  IV, 

wall,  leaving  a  narrow  space  behind  it.  High  up 
in  a  niche  at  the  east  end  is  the  holy  Madonna, 
a  black  image  with  a  smaller  black  image  in  its 
arms,  said  to  have  been  carved  by  St.  Luke,  who 
has  an  unenviable  and  no  doubt  undeserved 
reputation  for  works  of  this  kind.  The  figure  is 
draped  so  as  to  give  a  pyramidal  outline,  and  is 
all  ablaze  with  diamonds  and  precious  stones. 
Below  is  a  recess  looking  like  a  fireplace,  into  which 
the  pilgrims  press  with  an  ecstasy  of  devotion. 

From  a  cupboard  in  this  inner  sanctum  the 
courteous  canon  who  showed  us  the  building 
produced  a  rude  scodella,  or  saucer  of  terra-cotta, 
said  to  have  been  found  in  the  house,  and  to 
have  been  used  by  the  Holy  Family.  It  is  set 
very  handsomely  in  gold,  with  good  handles  in 
the  style  of  Cellini.  The  canon,  in  deference  to 
our  prejudices,  politely  dropped  the  question  of 
its  sanctity,  and  enlarged  only  on  the  beauty  of  the 
setting,  and  even  entrusted  it  to  my  heretical  hands. 

The  whole  adventure  interested  us  very  much, 
and  we  were  well  rewarded  by  our  visit.  The 
scene  seemed  to  carry  us  back  into  the  distant 
Middle  Ages ;  to  the  days  which  men  call  either 
of  faith  or  of  credulity  and  superstition,  according 
to  their  different  ways  of  looking  at  them ;  but 
from  either  point  of  view  far  away  from  the 
prosaic  nineteenth  century  with  its  railways,  its 
telegraphs,  and  its  daily  press. 


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CHAPTER   V 


URBINO 

The  Duchy  of  Urbino  lay  between  the  provinces 
of  Romagna  and  La  Marca.  Formed  by  the 
gradual  accretion  of  one  lordship  after  another, 
it  never  exceeded  the  size  of  a  county  in  the 
English  Midlands,  such  as  Leicestershire  or 
Warwickshire.  Its  outline  was  irregular,  but 
the  extreme  length  from  north  to  south  was 
about  fifty-six  miles,  and  the  average  width  about 
thirty-five.  When  at  its  greatest  extent,  it 
possessed  the  seacoast  from  a  little  north  of 
Pesaro  to  beyond  Sinigaglia,  with  the  exception 
of  Fano  and  a  small  territory  round  it ;  and  it 
reached  back  to  the  backbone  of  the  Apennines, 
and  at  Gubbio  dipped  over  a  little  on  the  other 
side.  In  the  time  of  Guidobaldo  n.,  the  fourth 
Duke,  it  contained  seven  towns  and  three  hun- 
dred castles.     The  lowland  country  between  the 

54 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  55 

mountains  and  the  sea  was  extremely  rich  and 
fertile,  so  much  that  the  Duchy  was  able  to 
export  corn  from  Sinigaglia.  But  the  interior 
was  a  wild  mountainous  district  of  bare  hillsides 
and  deep  ravines,  little  adapted  for  agriculture. 
The  forests  which  we  are  told  once  clothed  the 
Apennines  have  been  destroyed  by  the  fires  of 
shepherds  and  the  teeth  of  goats,  and  the  hills 
are  now  barren  and  naked,  scored  by  torrential 
rains  and  seamed  with  deep  watercourses.  It 
is  a  rough  country,  which  bred  a  hardy  warlike 
people,  and  supplied  the  condottieri  with  their 
best  soldiers.  And  it  has  a  rough  climate ;  on 
both  our  visits  we  had  stormy  weather,  rain, 
wind,  and  cold,  and  a  native  of  the  town  of 
Urbino,  which  stands  high  on  the  hills,  described 
the  climate  as  murderous — im  clima  'micidiale. 
It  is  curious  that  this  wild  highland  city  should 
have  been  the  birthplace  of  the  gentlest  of 
painters,  Raffaello  da  Urbino. 

Of  all  the  small  principalities — or,  as  the  Greeks 
would  have  called  them.  Tyrannies — in  Central 
Italy  that  of  Urbino  is  the  most  interesting,  and 
its  history  is  the  most  humane.  For  though  the 
early  Lords  and  Counts  seem  to  have  been  free- 
booters like  the  Malatesta  and  others  around 
them,  the  virtues  of  the  Montefeltrine  Dukes 
present  an  amiable  contrast  to  the  crimes  of 
such  despots  as  Sigismondo  Malatesta,  Filippo 


56  URBINO  [Ch.  V. 

Maria    Visconti,     Bernabo    Visconti,    Galeazzo 
Maria  Sforza,  or  Cesare  Borgia. 

Although  the  trade  of  both  prince  and 
people  was  mercenary  soldiering,  like  that  of 
all  their  neighbours,  Urbino  was  not  less 
distinguished  for  the  cultivation  of  arts  and 
letters.  Italy,  says  Sismondi,  had  no  inhabit- 
ants more  warlike  nor  any  court  more  literate 
and  polished. 

The  ducal  family  was  descended  from 
Antonio,  a  petty  lord  of  Monte  Coppiolo,  near 
San  Leo  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Duchy,  which 
stands  on  the  ancient  Mons  Feretrius,  a  name 
Italianized  into  Montefeltro.  He  or  his  son  was 
made  Count  of  Montefeltro  by  Frederick  Bar- 
barossa  in  1154.  Their  successor  Buonconte, 
after  a  twenty  years'  struggle  with  the  people  of 
Urbino,  who  fought  bravely  for  their  liberties,  an- 
nexed that  city  to  his  domains.  Count  Guido  da 
Montefeltro,  who  died  in  1298,  whom  all  lovers 
of  Dante  will  remember,  was  famous  for  his 
craft  rather  than  for  his  valour. 

Mentre  ch'io  forma  fui  d'ossa  e  di  polpe 

Che  la  madre  mi  die,  I'opere  mie 

Non  furon  leonine  ma  di  volpe. 
Gli  accorgimenti  e  la  coperte  vie 

lo  seppi  tutte,  .  .  .^ 

He  took  Forli  by  a  ruse,  and  gave  Boniface  viii. 

1  Inferno^  xxvii.  73. 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  57 

the  treacherous  advice  to  recover  Palestrina  from 
the  Colonna  by  fraud  : 

Lunga  promessa  con  I'attender  corto 
Ti  fark  trionfar  nell'  alto  seggio. 

'*  Large  promise  and  short  performance  would 
give  him  the  city." 

For  this  Dante  finds  him  enveloped  in  a 
flame  in  the  ottava  bolgia  of  Hell  among  the 
deceitful  and  traitors.  Guido  had  abdicated  his 
countship,  as  he  tells  Dante,  when  he  reached 
the  age  *'at  which  each  one  should  furl  the 
sails  and  gather  in  the  ropes,"  and  had  be- 
come a  Franciscan  at  Assisi  in  1294.  Thither 
came  Boniface,  ''Prince  of  modern  Pharisees," 
who  had  been  besieging  Palestrina  in  vain,  in 
order  to  consult  the  old  master  of  wiles  ;  and  he 
promised  him  full  absolution  for  any  advice  he 
might  give,  however  unrighteous.  ''So  at  my 
death,"  continues  Guido,  "  Francis  came  to  claim 
me ;  but  one  of  the  black  cherubims  said,  '  Take 
him  not,  do  me  no  wrong ;  he  has  to  come  down 
with  my  rascals,  for  that  he  gave  the  treacherous 
counsel.' " 

The  next  Count,  his  son  Federigo,  siding 
with  the  Ghibellines,  was  torn  to  pieces  by  the 
people  of  Urbino  in  1322,  who  had  risen  in 
favour  of  the  Guelfs,  after  which  the  Counts  seem 
to  have  been  in  exile.  Guidantonio,  Count  of 
5 


L 


58  URBINO  [Ch.  V. 

Urbino,  extended  his  territory  by  the  submission 
of  Cagli  in  1371  and  Gubbio  in  1384,  whence  the 
people  had  expelled  their  tyrants,  and  he  conquered 
Cantiano  a  little  later.  The  tenth  Count,  Oddan- 
tonio,  after  beginning  well,  fell  under  the  cor- 
rupting influence  of  his  neighbour  Sigismondo 
of  Rimini,  and  was  murdered  by  the  people 
whom  he  had  outraged  by  his  crimes.  He  was 
succeeded  by  his  half-brother  Federigo,  a  natural 
son  of  the  ninth  Count,  who  was  created  Duke 
of  Urbino,  and  with  whom  the  importance  of  the 
family  and  the  Duchy  really  begins.  He  bought 
Fossombrone  from  the  Malatesta  of  Pesaro  in 
1445,  and  took  several  townships  from  his  here- 
ditary foe  Sigismondo  of  Rimini.  The  addition 
of  Sinigaglia  and  Mondavio  in  1474,  and  of 
Pesaro  and  its  district  given  to  the  Delia  Rovere 
Dukes  in  1513  by  Julius  11.,  brought  the  Duchy 
of  Urbino  to  its  final  extent. 

Federigo  was  born  in  1422,  the  reputed  son  of 
Count  Guidantonio  by  a  girl  of  Urbino,  but  there 
is  some  uncertainty  about  the  relationship.  He 
was  at  all  events  legitimated  by  Martin  v.  on 
December  22,  1424.^  He  was  educated  at  Padua 
under  Vittorino  da  Feltre,  a  master  whose  reputa- 
tion is  a  credit  to  that  age.  [j  He  had  pupils  of 
all  classes,  taking  payment  from  the  rich, 
but    teaching    the    poor    gratis.      His    was    a 

1  Dennistoun,  vol.  i.  p.  58. 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  59 

school  of  high  thinking  and  plain  living,  and 
his  moral  rule  was  strict.  In  1423  he  removed 
to  Venice,  where  he  took  pupils  of  both  sexes, 
in  itself  a  tribute  to  his  goodness  and  discre- 
tion in  that  profligate  age.  He  was  afterwards 
engaged  as  tutor  to  the  children  of  the  Duke 
of  Mantua,  and  made  it  a  condition  that  he 
should  have  absolute  control  of  his  pupils. 
Luxurious  living  and  high  diet  were  replaced  by 
frugality  and  simplicity.  Training  of  the  body 
he  considered  a  necessary  complement  to  that  of 
the  mind,  and,  like  ourselves,  he  valued  the  ex- 
ercise of  sport  more  highly  than  mere  gymnastic, 
which  is  the  German  ideal.  All  swearing,  ob- 
scene language,  vulgar  joking,  and  quarrels  were 
severely  punished ;  personal  morality  and  re- 
ligious exercises  were  exacted.  With  his  princely 
pupils  he  associated  others  of  inferior  degree  who 
were  educated  together  with  them.  Vespasiano 
writes  that  his  house  was  a  sanctuary  of  manners, 
deeds,  and  words,  and  when  he  died  in  1446  he 
did  not  leave  enough  money  to  pay  for  his 
funeral.  "] 

His  friend  Guarini,  who  had  a  similar  school 
at  Ferrara,  has  left  an  equally  happy  reputation   i 
behind  him.     His  moral  character,  we  are  told,    \ 
was  equal  to  his  learning.^  "^^ 

As  with  all  the  princelings  of  the  day  Federigo's 

1  J.  A.  Symonds,  Renaissance  in  Italy^  ii.  302. 


6o  URBINO  [Ch.  V. 

profession  was  that  of  arms.  The  regular  routine 
was  first  to  learn  the  trade  under  some  great 
captain,  and  then  to  raise  a  force  of  your  own 
with  which  to  serve  any  of  the  greater  powers 
that  chose  to  hire  you.  Federigo  served  his 
apprenticeship  under  Piccinino,  whose  little  body 
held  a  mighty  soul,  and  in  1439  he  was  ready  to 
defend  his  possessions  against  Sigismondo  of 
Rimini,  who  advanced  a  claim  to  them  and  in- 
vaded the  district  of  Montefeltro.  Sigismondo 
being  checked  by  Federigo,  sent  him  a  challenge 
to  settle  their  claims  by  single  combat,  but  when 
Federigo  appeared  at  the  rendezvous  no  Sigis- 
mondo was  there  to  meet  him. 

For  the  next  twenty-four  years  Federigo 
followed  the  profession  of  a  condottiere,  at  one 
time  in  the  service  of  the  Duke  of  Milan,  at 
another  that  of  the  King  of  Naples,  sometimes 
in  the  pay  of  Florence,  sometimes  Lieutenant- 
General  of  the  papal  forces.  Through  all  the 
time  his  own  personal  struggle  with  Sigismondo 
Malatesta  went  on  ;  but  the  final  humiliation  of 
that  egregious  despot  in  1463,  after  twenty-four 
years  of  conflict,  at  last  brought  to  Federigo  a 
period  of  repose,  and  time  to  attend  to  his 
domestic  affairs.  In  his  conduct  of  these  cam- 
paigns Federigo  seems  to  have  behaved  with 
as  much  humanity  as  was  consistent  with  the 
habits  of  the  age.     His  troops  enjoyed  the  usual 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  6i 

privileges  of  these  mercenary  soldiers,  which  in- 
cluded liberty  to  sack  the  towns  they  took,  but 
their  leader  appears  to  have  shown  some  regard 
for  the  lives  of  the  inhabitants.  At  the  surrender 
of  Fano  by  the  Malatesta  under  a  promise  of 
protection  to  persons  and  property,  Federigo 
was  urged  by  the  Papal  Legate  not  to  keep  his 
word,  but  to  take  the  opportunity  of  avenging  his 
injuries  on  his  treacherous  foe,  who  never  re- 
spected such  promises  himself.  In  like  manner 
did  the  Papal  Legate  Juliano  persuade  the 
Hungarian  King  to  break  his  word  with  the 
Infidel  at  Varna,  which  he  did  to  his  own  de- 
struction. In  like  manner  too,  in  our  own  day 
did  the  German  Minister  urge  us  not  to  go  to 
war  for  a  scrap  of  paper.  It  is  to  Federigo's 
credit  that  he  did  not  listen  to  this  perfidious 
and  infamous  suggestion.  In  an  age  of  treachery 
and  dissimulation  he  had  the  enviable  distinction 
of  being  true  to  his  engagements.  The  Venetians 
when  they  were  attacking  Ferrara  tried  to  detach 
him  from  the  League  which  opposed  them,  and 
offered  him  eighty  thousand  ducats  if  he  would 
only  stay  at  home.  *' All  they  asked  was  that  he 
should  consider  himself  in  their  pay."  When 
the  Venetian  Envoy  had  left  the  room  one  of 
Federigo's  suite  said:  ''A  fine  thing!  eighty 
thousand  ducats  and  stay  at  home  I "  The 
Duke    replied :    **  It    is   a   finer    thing    to   keep 


62  URBINO  [Ch.  V. 

faith,  and  worth  more  than  all  the  gold  in  the 
world."  ^ 

The  Duke's  constant  employment  in  war  as  a 
mercenary  brought  in  large  sums  of  money,  and 
his  treasury  was  so  well  filled  that  his  subjects 
were  lightly  taxed.  It  was  said  that  the  Duke 
brought  in  more  money  than  he  cost.  He  was 
free  from  the  passions  that  have  earned  an  exe- 
crable reputation  for  most  of  the  Italian  despots, 
and  his  people  loved  him.  When  he  appeared  in 
public,  says  his  biographer  Vespasiano,  men  and 
women  would  kneel  at  his  approach  and  cry, 
*'  God  keep  you,  my  lord  ! "  and  that  not  from 
fear  but  from  affection.  He  was  easy  of  access, 
and  encouraged  his  subjects  to  consult  him  and 
confide  in  him.  An  officer  who  tried  to  prevent 
a  suitor  from  approaching  him  was  severely 
punished.  Baldi  says  that  as  he  rode  or  walked 
about  the  place  he  would  send  for,  or  himself  call 
to  him,  citizens  or  merchants  whom  he  saw,  and 
ask  about  their  families,  and  if  they  were  building 
he  would  encourage  them,  and  himself  help  them 
to  build  well,  so  that  Urbino  was  as  well  furnished 
with  commodious  houses  as  any  city.  This 
aspect  of  his  character,  however,  seems  to  Baldi 
beneath  the  dignity  of  history,  though  to  us  it  is 
far  more  interesting  than  the  petty  wars  in  which 
he  played  his  part,  which  may  well  be  forgotten. 

^  Vespasiano,  ed.  1859,  p.  88. 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  63 

*'To  such  details,"  says  Baldi,  '*we  do  not 
descend,  as  do  some  writers  over-scrupulous 
about  trifles  ;  nor  shall  we  tell  how  he  interfered 
to  maintain  the  poor,  to  compose  quarrels,  to 
secure  a  pure  administration  of  justice,  to  protect 
the  honour  of  families,  and  to  reward  those  who 
served  him  faithfully.  Still  less  do  we  report 
his  witty  jests  and  pleasant  sayings,  as  these  are 
things  altogether  trifling  and  unbecoming  the 
gravity  of  history,  besides  which  they  all  or  most 
of  them  live  in  the  memory  and  mouths  of  the 
people.  But,  since  magnificence  is  a  virtue  proper 
to  great  princes,  we  shall  touch  upon  some  cir- 
cumstances regarding  the  nobleness,  the  numerical 
grandeur,  and  the  splendour  of  his  court." 

All  writers  concur  in  praising  his  military 
talents,  in  which  he  was  surpassed  by  no  con- 
temporary captain.  *'  A  Mars  in  the  field,"  says 
one  writer,  **a  Minerva  in  his  administration, 
he  was  equally  feared  and  loved."  Federigo  did 
not  forget  the  lessons  he  had  learned  under 
the  virtuous  Vittorino.  ''  His  household  of  five 
hundred  mouths  or  more,"  says  Vespasiano,  was 
not  like  a  house  full  of  soldiers ;  no  religious 
establishment  was  conducted  in  so  orderly  a 
way.  Gambling  and  swearing  were  unknown, 
and  singular  decorum  of  language  was  observed, 
while  numerous  noble  youths,  sent  there  to  learn 

1  Baldi,  Vita  di  Federigo,  vol.  iii.  p.  59. 


64  URBINO  [Ch.  V. 

good  manners  and  military  discipline,  were  edu- 
cated under  the  strict  tuition  of  a  gentleman  from 
Lombardy  whom  the  Duke  had  brought  up,  and 
whom  they  obeyed  as  if  they  had  been  his  sons."  ^ 
The  courts  of  these  professional  soldiers  were  in 
fact  military  colleges,  where  young  noblemen  who 
intended  to  make  arms  their  profession  were  enter- 
tained and  regularly  trained  for  military  command. 
In  1472  Federigo  lost  his  wife,  the  Duchess 
Battista,  daughter  of  Alessandro  Sforza  of  Pesaro, 
and,  according  to  Giovanni  Sanzi,  it  was  partly 
for  distraction  from  his  sorrow  that  he  began  to 
rebuild  his  palace  at  Urbino.  It  appears,  how- 
ever, that  it  was  really  begun  long  before,  either 
in  1454  or  perhaps  as  far  back  as  1447.^  Vasari 
says  the  palace  was  built  by  Francesco  di  Giorgio 
of  Siena,  who  was  famous  as  an  engineer  and 
especially  for  warlike  machines,  of  which  he 
painted  a  frieze  with  his  own  hand  in  the  palace  at 
Urbino.  Vasari  seems,  however,  to  be  mistaken, 
for  the  real  architect  was  a  Dalmatian,  Luciano 
da  Laurana,  son  of  Martino  of  Zara.  Giovanni 
Sanzi,  Raffaelle's  father,  in  a  long  poem  on 
Urbino  and  its  Duke,  says  : 

e  r  architetto  a  tutti  gli  altri  sopra 
Fu  Lucian  Lauranna,  huomo  eccellente 
Che  il  nome  vive  benche  morte  '1  cuopra. 

^  Vespasiano,  ed.  1859,  p.  10 1. 

^  Calzini,  Urbino  ed  i  suoi  monumenti. 


jO-. 


w 


°  g 

c  2 

^  o 

2  O 
o 


'^^ 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  65 

After  some  trouble  I  succeeded  in  identifying 
Laurana,  a  name  now  unknown  in  Dalmatia, 
with  Vrana,  a  place  some  twenty  or  twenty-five 
miles  south  of  Zara,  where  there  is  a  lake  with 
the  extensive  remains  of  a  castle,  once  of  the 
Templars,  and  afterwards  of  the  Hospitallers.^ 
It  is  now  a  heap  of  ruins,  and  the  town  where 
Luciano  was  born  in  1420  was  destroyed  during 
the  wars  of  Turks  and  Venetians  in  1647.  The 
most  important  building  now  standing  there  is  a 
Turkish  khan  or  caravanserai. 

Luciano's  work  on  the  palace  seems  to  have 
begun  c.  1465  or  1466.  Before  then  he  was  in  the 
service  of  Alessandro  Sforza  at  Pesaro,  for  in  May 
1465  Ludovico  Gonzaga,  Marquis  of  Mantua,  begs 
Alessandro  to  send  him  Magistro  Luciano  to 
give  him  advice  about  his  buildings.  It  does  not 
appear,  however,  that  Luciano  went  to  Mantua, 
for  in  1467  we  find  him  at  Urbino  litigating  with 
Maestro  Giorgio  of  Como,  who  had  not  properly 
performed  the  work  under  his  contract  at  the 
new  palace.  As  the  deeds  speak  of  walls  and 
vaults,  and  not  of  foundations,  the  building  must 
by  that  time  have  made  considerable  progress 
under  Luciano's  direction.  Therefore  the  patent 
issued  by  Duke  Federigo  in   1468,   placing  the 

^  "  Urana  (Vrana)  alias  Aurana,  sive  Laurana  Celebris  in  primis  est  a 
Rhodiorum  equitum  statione."  Farlati,  Illyr,  Sacr.^  Prolog,  ii.  c.  v.  §  iv. 
Vide  my  Dalmatia^  etc.,  vol.  i. 


k 


66  URBINO  [Ch.  V. 

whole  control  of  the  work  in  Luciano's  hands, 
would  seem  to  be  intended  to  confirm  his 
authority,  and  not  to  be  his  first  appointment  as 
architect. 

The  patent  of  Federigo,  dated  lo  June, 
1468,  from  Pavia,  says  that  **  having  searched 
everywhere  and  particularly  in  Tuscany,  where 
is  the  fount  of  architects,  and  having  found  no 
one  truly  accomplished  in  that  art,  and  at  last 
having  learned  first  by  report  and  afterwards 
by  experience  how  well  the  eminent  man  Maestro 
Lutiano,  the  bearer  hereof,  is  accomplished  in 
that  art,  and  having  determined  to  build  in  our 
city  of  Urbino  a  habitation  fine  and  worthy,  and 
suitable  to  the  condition  and  honourable  fame 
of  our  progenitors,  we  have  elected  and  deputed 
the  said  M°  Lutiano  to  be  engineer  and  head  of 
all  the  masters  who  labour  on  the  said  work,  as 
well  those  of  building,  as  the  masters  of  carving 
stone,  and  the  masters  of  carpenters  and  work- 
men, and  of  every  other  person  of  whatever 
degree  and  of  whatever  craft  who  may  work 
in  the  said  building."  The  patent  goes  on  to 
give  '' M°  Lutiano"  leave  to  discharge  all  work- 
men who  do  not  satisfy  him,  and  to  engage 
others  by  the  week  or  by  the  day  as  he  may 
please,  and  to  do  ''everything  that  pertains  to 
an   architect   and   chief  master   appointed   to   a 

^  Vide  Calzini,  Urbino  ed  i  suoi  nwnuvienti. 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  67 

work,  exactly  as  we  ourselves  should  do  were 
we  present."^ 

Luciano  seems  to  have  died  at  Pesaro  in 
1479,  when  the  building  was  very  nearly  finished, 
and  what  remained  to  be  done  was  carried  on 
by  Baccio  Pontelli,  who  was  still  living  after  the 
death  of  Federigo  in  1482,  when  the  palace  was 
practically  complete.  If  Francesco  di  Giorgio 
had  anything  to  do  with  it,  it  was  probably  with 
the  sculptures  of  military  emblems  now  placed 
for  safety  in  the  inner  corridor.  Ambrogio 
Baroccio  da  Milano  was  employed  for  carving 
the  arabesques  in  which  the  palace  is  so  rich, 
and  for  the  sculpture  of  the  chimney-pieces. 
Gondolo  Tedesco  is  credited  with  the  beautiful 
though  now  sadly  decayed  intarsia  in  the  doors 
and  other  furniture.  Federigo  himself,  we  are 
told,  was  skilled  in  architecture,  and  gave  many 
directions  during  the  progress  of  the  work. 
''  He  listened  to  his  architect's  opinion,"  says 
his  biographer,  ''and  then  gave  the  dimensions 
and  all  the  rest,  and  you  would  think,  to  hear 

1  Gaye,  Carteggio  d'  Artistic  vol.  i.  p.  214.  The  original  is  in 
the  Vatican  Library,  but  there  is  a  copy  in  the  Albani  Library  at 
Urbino.  Gaye  mentions  two  suits  and  decisions  at  law  between 
Luciano  Laurana  and  workmen  about  the  measurement  of  work. 
Also  a  rogito  or  signed  document  in  September  1483  about  Luciano's 
will.  "Cum  egregius  vir  Lucianus  q.  Martini  de  Jadia  .  .  .  con- 
diderit  testamentum  Pisauri  ...  in  quo  instituit  suam  heredem 
Catharinam  d  Luciani  uxorem,  una  cum  Camilla  et  Lucretia  suis 
filiabus,"  etc.  etc.     Gaye  sought  in  vain  for  this  will  at  Pesaro. 


I 


68  URBINO  [Ch.  V. 

him  talk,  that  it  was  the  principal  art  he  had 
ever  practised.  He  paid  the  greatest  attention 
to  the  sculpture  of  his  palace,  and  employed  the 
best  masters  of  the  time,  and  to  hear  him  talk 
with  a  sculptor  it  seemed  that  it  was  his  own 
art,  from  the  way  he  discoursed  about  it.  Paint- 
ing too  he  understood,  and  not  being  able  to 
find  masters  in  Italy  who  know  how  to  paint 
in  oils,  he  sent  to  Flanders,  and  brought  a  serious 
master  to  Urbino,  who  painted  many  pictures  for 
him.^  Also  from  Flanders  he  brought  masters 
to  weave  tapestries,  and  caused  them  to  furnish 
a  hall  splendidly  with  work  of  gold  and  silk 
mixed  with  yarn.  It  was  marvellous  what 
figures  he  caused  them  to  make,  such  as  no 
brush  could  have  equalled.  His  lordship  having 
so  great  a  knowledge,  caused  everything  to  be 
executed  in  the  very  highest  degree  of  art."  ^ 

Federigo  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Guido- 
baldo,  a  boy  ten  years  old,  to  whom,  strange  to 
say,  the  league  of  Naples,  Florence,  and  Milan 
continued  the  command  which  his  father  held  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  not,  however, 
called  upon  to  act,  fortunately  for  his  military 
reputation,  and  the  engagement  was  probably  of 
the  nature  of  a  retainer.  Guidobaldo,  though  he 
took  part  in  several  campaigns,  was  not  a  great 

^  Justus  of  Ghent. 

2  Vespasiano  da  Bisticci,  Viie,  ed.  1859,  p.  93. 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  69 

soldier  like  his  father,  but  rather  a  scholar  and 
man  of  letters,  and  moreover  during  the  greater 
part  of  his  life  he  was  a  martyr  to  gout,  or  some 
complaint  to  which  that  name  was  given,  which 
incapacitated  him  for  an  active  life.  At  the  age 
of  sixteen,  in  1489  he  married  Elisabetta  Gon- 
zaga,  youngest  sister  of  the  Marquis  of  Mantua. 
To  the  beauty  and  virtues  of  this  lady  ample 
testimony  is  borne  not  only  by  Castiglione,  but 
by  all  contemporary  writers.  The  Duke's  mis- 
fortunes began  with  the  election  of  Roderigo 
Borgia  to  the  papal  tiara,  as  Alexander  vi.,  in  V 
1492,  ''the  most  odious/'  says  Sismondi,  ''the 
most  publicly  scandalous,  and  the  most  wicked 
of  all  miscreants  who  ever  misused  sacred 
authority  to  outrage  and  degrade  mankind." 
"  His  entire  occupation,  his  only  thought," 
says  Macchiavelli,  "was  deception,  and  he 
always  found  victims.  Never  was  there  a  man 
with  more  effrontery  in  assertion,  more  ready 
to  add  oaths  to  his  promises,  or  to  break  them  : 
yet  did  his  deceit  ever  succeed  to  his  heart's 
content."  The  Pope's  ambition  was  to  create 
a  kingdom  for  his  son  Cesare  Borgia,  Duke 
Valentino,^  in  Romagna  and  the  Pentapolis, 
which  included  Pesaro  and  Urbino.  Cesare 
occupied  Pesaro  and  Rimini  in  1500,  and  was 
created    Duke  of   Romagna.      In     1502    Duke 

1  He  was  created  Duke  of  Valentinois  by  Louis  xii. 


I 


70  URBINO  [Ch.  V. 

Guidobaldo  was  enjoying  himself  at  supper  in 
the  groves  at  S.  Bernardino,  the  convent  of 
Zoccolanti,  a  little  way  out  of  the  town,  and 
was  rising  from  table,  when  news  was  brought 
from  Fossombrone  that  Duke  Valentino  had  a 
thousand  men  there,  and  had  as  many  more  from 
Fano  and  Sinigaglia  in  his  pay,  intent  on  mis- 
chief. Guidobaldo,  much  disturbed,  smote  his 
hand  on  the  table  and  exclaimed  that  he  was 
betrayed.  At  Urbino  he  was  met  by  a  messenger 
from  the  Commonwealth  of  San  Marino  who  told 
him  that  there  was  a  force  at  Verrucchio  and 
San  Arcangelo;  and  the  Commissary  of  Cagli  sent 
word  that  that  city  was  occupied,  and  that  Duke 
Valentino  would  be  at  Urbino  the  next  morn- 
ing. Guidobaldo  assembled  the  magistrates  and 
notables  of  Urbino,  who  advised  him,  as  the  city 
was  quite  unprepared  for  defence,  to  save  himself 
and  join  the  Duchess,  who  was  at  Mantua. 
Gathering  hastily  some  important  papers  and 
patents,  and  some  gold  and  jewels,  and  escaping 
by  a  private  door  from  the  palace,  he  fled  towards 
San  Leo,  but  his  way  was  intercepted.  He  de- 
scribes his  adventures  in  a  letter  to  Cardinal 
Juliano  della  Rovere,  afterwards  Julius  ii.,  who 
had  retired  from  Rome  for  fear  of  the  Borgias. 
Dismissing  all  but  three  archers,  and  disguising 
himself  as  a  peasant,  the  Duke  made  for  the 
Venetian    territory.       A    messenger    sent   from 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  71 

Ravenna  to  warn  him  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Valentino,  who  closed  and  guarded  the  passes, 
but  he  succeeded  with  difficulty  in  reaching 
Ravenna,  after  being  robbed  on  the  way,  and 
thence  by  way  of  Ferrara  he  escaped  to  Mantua, 
the  territory  of  his  brother-in-law.  ''  Further," 
he  concludes,  ''  I  have  saved  nothing  but  my  life, 
a  doublet,  and  a  shirt."  ^ 

Duke  Valentino  entered  Urbino  in  state,  and 
removed  to  Forli  the  plate,  tapestry,  books,  and 
other  treasures  he  found  in  the  palace,  estimated 
at  above  150,000  ducats,  equal  perhaps  to  a 
quarter  of  a  million  sterling  of  our  money.^  A 
rising  of  the  people  of  Urbino  brought  Guido- 
baldo  back  to  head  them,  and  almost  without  a 
blow  he  recovered  all  but  the  fortress  of  S.  Agata, 
for  Valentino  was  in  difficulties  owing  to  the 
defection  of  the  Orsini  and  Vitellozzo  and  the 
other  chiefs,  whom  after  a  feigned  reconciliation 
he  afterwards  massacred  at  Sinigaglia.  Guido- 
baldo  had  again  to  fly,  and  did  not  recover  his 
Duchy  till  the  death  of  the  Pope  and  the  illness 
of  Cesare,  who  drank  inadvertently  the  poison 
prepared  for  the  Cardinal  of  Corneto.^     The  next 

^  Baldi,  Vita  di  Guidobaldo  /.,  Duca  d'  Urbino,  written  in  1615. 

2  Dennistoun,  vol.  i.  p.  394. 

•^  Adrian  di  Castello,  Cardinal  of  Corneto,  was  one  of  the  foreign 
prelates  imposed  on  the  English.  He  was  made  successively  Bishop 
of  Hereford,  and  of  Bath  and  Wells.  The  wealth  which  he  had 
accumulated  in  England  was  the  motive  for  his  destruction.     He  was 


72  URBINO  [Ch.  V. 

Pope,  Pius  III.,  died  within  a  month,  and  the 
election,  in  1503,  of  Juliano  della  Rovere,  the 
bitter  enemy  of  the  Borgias,  as  Julius  11.,  gave  the 
death-blow  to  the  hopes  of  Cesare,  who  had  to 
surrender  all  his  conquests.  Baldi,  in  his  life 
of  Duke  Guidobaldo,  describes  the  interview 
between  him  and  Cesare,  who  came  to  make  his 
submission,  and  who  was  received  with  clemency. 
The  Thucydidean  speeches  which  the  writer  puts 
into  their  mouths  are  probably  quite  imaginary. 
Dennistoun  saw  a  fresco  at  Cagli  by  Taddeo 
Zucchero,  representing  Cesare  on  his  knees 
before  Guidobaldo,  surrendering  his  spoils.  He 
pleaded  excuse  on  account  of  his  youth,  the 
brutality  of  his  father,  and  the  persuasions  of 
others.^  Cesare  retired  to  Spain,  and  fell  in  an 
obscure  skirmish  in  1507. 

With  the  accession  of  Julius  11.  the  Duke  was 
secured  in  his  possessions.  The  Pope's  younger 
brother,  Giovanni  della  Rovere  of  Sinigaglia,  Pre- 
fect of  Rome,  had  married  Giovanna,  the  Duke  s 
sister,  and  their  son  Francesco  Maria  was  adopted 
by  Guidobaldo  as  heir  to  the  Duchy,   his  own 

a  benefactor  to  the  Church  at  Bath,  and  his  arms  may  be  seen  in  the 
choir  vault,  and  I  think  on  the  west  front.  Godwin  tells  an  amusing 
story  of  his  hope  of  the  Papacy  from  the  prediction  of  a  witch,  that 
came  true  of  another  Adrian.  Polydore  Vergil  was  his  relation  and 
was  indebted  to  him  for  his  introduction  to  England. 

^  Dennistoun,  vol.  ii.  p.  30.     Cesare,  it  is  believed,  was  not  thirty 
years  old  at  his  death. 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  73 

marriage  being  childless.  By  this  marriage  and 
adoption  the  succession  was  assured,  for  other- 
wise Urbino,  being  a  fief  of  the  Church,  would 
have  lapsed  to  the  Pope  for  want  of  an  heir. 
This  was  a  danger  that  constantly  threatened 
those  princes  who  were  feudatories  of  the  Church, 
which  was  always  on  the  watch  to  incorporate 
their  dominions  into  the  Papal  State  and  ex- 
tinguish the  fiefs.  The  independence  of  Rimini 
had  been  threatened  in  1469,  some  thirty  years 
before,  when  on  the  death  of  Sigismondo  Pan- 
dolfo  Malatesta  without  legitimate  heirs  Pope 
Paul  II.  claimed  it.  Rimini,  however,  was  held 
against  him  by  Roberto,  one  of  the  illegitimate 
sons,  who  proclaimed  himself  Signor.  Duke 
Federigo  in  alarm  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Milan  : 
''  I  am  constrained  to  believe  that  the  Pontiff 
and  the  Venetian  Signory  intend  to  occupy 
Rimini  and  all  Romagna,  and  eventually  Bologna 
too.  Rimini  once  lost,  the  rest  will  speedily 
follow."  The  danger  was  then  averted  and 
Roberto  established  by  a  league  of  Milan,  Flor- 
ence, and  Naples,  and  the  defeat  of  the  papal 
forces  by  Duke  Federigo.^  The  whole  policy  of 
Julius  was  generally  directed  to  aggrandizing  the 
papal  possessions  in  the  same  way,  when  a  fief 
fell  vacant ;  but  in  the  case  of  Urbino  he  connived 
at  the  continuance  of  the  Duchy  in  the  person 

^  Vide  TroUope,  History  of  Florence ^  vol.  iii.  p.  265. 


74  URBINO  [Ch.  V. 

of  his  nephew,  whom  he  also  made  Prefect  of 
Rome  at  the  age  of  eleven  years  on  the  death  of 
his  father. 

Guidobaldo's  return  was  hailed  by  his  people 
with  joy.  Castiglione  tells  how  he  was  met  by 
children  with  olive  boughs,  old  men  weeping  for 
delight,  crowds  of  men  and  women  of  all  ages, 
"nay,  the  very  stones  seemed  to  exult  and  leap." 
The  usurper's  arms,  which  had  been  painted  over 
the  gates  at  the  cost  of  from  one  to  four  ducats 
each,  by  no  less  an  artist  than  Timoteo  della 
Vite,  were  defaced  and  thrown  down  in  a  fury 
of  popular  resentment.  Guidobaldo  had  the 
satisfaction  of  recovering  most  of  the  valuables 
of  which  the  palace  had  been  robbed,  including 
a  great  part  of  his  father's  famous  library. 

The  later  history  of  Urbino  may  be  told  very 
briefly.  Francesco  Maria  i.  spent  the  greater 
part  of  his  life  in  the  field.  In  a  fit  of  passion 
he  stabbed  and  killed  the  Cardinal  of  Pavia, 
the  Papal  Legate,  who  he  believed  had  betrayed 
him.  Having  the  Pope  for  his  uncle  he  escaped 
any  serious  consequences,  but  when  the  Medici 
came  into  power  by  the  election  of  Leo  x.,  his  old 
crime  was  raked  up  against  him  and  he  was 
driven  from  his  Duchy.  The  Pope  gave  it  to 
his  nephew  Lorenzo,  grandson  of  Lorenzo  the 
Magnificent;  but  in  15 19  the  new  Duke  died, 
the  victim  of  his  own  licentious  excesses,  leaving 


Ch.  v.]  URBINO  75 

only  a  daughter,  Catherine,  who  became  Queen 
of  France  as  wife  of  Henri  ii.  On  the  death  of 
Leo  X.  in  1521  Francesco  Maria  recovered  his 
Duchy.  The  reign  of  his  son,  Guidobaldo  11., 
was  not  memorable.  The  last  of  the  Delia 
Rovere  Dukes,  Francesco  Maria  11.,  had  a  son 
Federigo,  who  died  before  him ;  the  web  of 
papal  intrigue  was  drawn  closely  round  him, 
and  in  1625  he  was  induced  to  abdicate,  and  the 
Duchy  was  annexed  to  the  papal  dominions,  to 
the  great  grief  of  the  inhabitants.  Urbino 
became  a  mere  provincial  town  under  a  governor, 
and  the  library  and  treasures  of  the  palace  were 
transported  to  Rome.^ 

^  The  story  of  the  last  Duke  and  the  intrigues  that  led  to  his 
abdication  has  been  adopted  by  the  author  of  John  Inglesant  for  his 
imaginary  Duke  of  Umbria.  But  nothing  can  be  less  like  the  real 
Urbino  than  his  imaginary  city. 


CHAPTER   VI 
URBINO 

Urbino,  the  ancient  Urbinum  Metaurense,  may 
now,  I  believe,  be  reached  by  railway.  At  the 
time  of  our  visits  we  had  to  get  there  by  road 
either  in  the  diligence  from  Pesaro,  a  drive  of 
twenty-three  miles,  or  by  carriage  from  Fano. 

The  drive  from  Pesaro  took  from  five  to  six 
hours,  the  last  part  of  the  way  being  very  hilly, 
and  the  return  journey  took  about  four;  for 
Urbino  stands  very  high,  and  indeed  at  the  time 
of  our  visit  was  generally  in  the  clouds.  The 
scenery  in  the  lowland  district  was  enchanting. 
The  road  follows  the  river  Foglia,  with  consider- 
able hills  on  either  side  crowned  with  romantic 
castles  and  seductive  little  towns  that  made  one 
long  to  climb  up  to  them.  The  scenery  had 
something  about  it  that  suggested  the  conven- 
tional compositions  of  the  Classical  school  of 
landscape.  The  gently  curving  river,  the  com- 
pact rounded  trees,  generally  oaks,  which  are  not 
very  common  in  Italy;  the  steep  precipitous 
banks,  with  village,  farm,  or  mill  placed  just 
where  the    painter  would   have   wanted    it   had 

he    been    composing  a   landscape  according  to 

76 


I>LATK  VIII. 


T.G.J. 


URBINO. 


{To /ace  p.  76. 


Ch.  VI.]  URBINO  77 

Academic  rule,  reminded  one  of  Claude  Lorraine 
or  Richard  Wilson.  The  last  hour  and  a  half  was 
occupied  by  a  stiff  climb  towards  Urbino,  which  is 
seen  high  up  long  before  it  is  reached  (Plate  VIII.). 
The  situation  is  romantic  and  magnificent. 

The  drive  from  Fano,  whence  we  reached 
Urbino  on  our  second  visit,  took  about  seven 
hours,  including  a  rest  on  the  way.  Here  a 
carriage  met  us  on  our  return  from  Ancona,  but 
we  looked  with  dismay  at  the  miserable  little 
beasts  that  were  to  draw  us,  though  the  driver 
assured  us  they  were  ''  dtie  bravi  cavalli;  sono 
piccoli  ma  sono  braviy  However,  when  we  got 
to  Fossombrone,  towards  the  end  of  the  flat 
country,  where  we  were  to  rest  the  poor  little 
animals  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  the  driver  was 
forced  to  admit  they  could  go  no  farther,  and 
handed  us  over  to  a  relation  of  his  who  had  a 
fresh  pair.  This  time,  though  piccoli,  they  were 
indeed  bravi,  and  Urbino  appeared  towering 
above  us  long  before  we  expected  it. 

Fossombrone,  the  ancient  Forum  Sempronii, 
has  a  long  street  with  arcades,  but  is  not  other- 
wise interesting.  There  is  a  small  palace  of  the 
Dukes,  with  a  good  chimney-piece  and  a  coved 
wooden  ceiling,  the  whole  much  dilapidated.^ 
We  lunched  in  company  with  a  party  of  Italians, 
who  had  come  to  see  the  Furlo  Pass,  which  lay 

1  Illustrated  by  Hofmann,  Bauten  des  Herzog  Federigo  di  Monte 
feltro,  1905. 


78  URBINO  [Ch.  VI. 

rather  out  of  our  route,  and  had  to  be  reserved 
for  another  day,  on  our  way  to  Gubbio. 

Urbino  is  entered  by  a  narrow  street  under 
the  shadow  of  the  enormous  mass  of  Duke 
Federigo's  palace,  which  rises  with  wide-spread- 
ing spur-footed  bastions  and  vast  windowless 
walls,  built  as  we  afterwards  found  as  a  facing  to 
the  natural  rock,  the  real  level  of  the  interior 
being  far  above  our  heads.  By  a  malodorous 
brick  stair  we  reached  our  inn,  which  was  on  the 
first  and  upper  floors  of  an  ordinary  house  in 
the  main  street,  and  we  presented  the  introduc- 
tion from  our  friend  the  innkeeper  at  Pesaro. 
It  was  read  with  great  einpressefne^it  by  an 
important  young  gentleman  with  double  glasses 
on  his  nose,  and  his  hair  in  studied  neglige,  who 
turned  out  to  be  the  waiter.  The  padrone  we 
seldom  saw:  he  passed  his  time  upstairs  in  practis- 
ing the  violoncello,  or  rolling  out  bravura  passages 
in  a  fine  baritone  voice  that  made  the  walls  ring 
again.  Nothing,  however,  could  exceed  the  almost 
embarrassing  attentions  of  the  waiter,  and  on 
leaving  we  found  our  bill  extremely  moderate. 

The  town  was  a  queer,  rough  place,  a  regular 
highland  fortress.  Our  street  led  to  a  small 
piazza,  whence  two  streets  rose  at  a  steep  angle 
to  still  greater  heights,  and  other  streets  pitched 
sharply  down  to  the  gate  by  which  the  road 
leaves  for  Citta  di  Castello  and  Borgo  San 
Sepolcro,  or  for  Arezzo   and   Florence.     Climb- 


Ch.  VI.]  URBINO  79 

ing  one  of  the  narrow  ascents  we  reached  a 
desolate  piazza,  with  the  rather  modern  Duomo 
on  one  side,  and  the  huge  square  block  of  the 
Palace  facing  us.  Here  it  is  only  of  a  moderate 
height,  and  less  imposing  than  when  seen  from 
the  street  below.  Indeed,  it  is  said  that  the  top 
storey  is  a  later  addition,  and  that  originally  there 
was  only  a  first  floor  containing  the  grand  apart- 
ments above  the  ground  storey.^  The  walls  are 
of  brick,  and  full  of  putlog  holes,  but  there  are 
signs  that  there  was  an  idea  at  some  time  of 
facing  them  with  stone.  The  west  front  that  faces 
you  as  you  enter  the  town  is  the  only  part  of  the 
exterior  that  makes  much  pretence  to  an  archi- 
tectural character :  two  tourelles  crowned  with  a 
macchicolated  cornice  and  a  rather  uninteresting 
spirelet  flank  a  facade  in  the  middle  of  which  is  a 
composition  of  loggie  in  several  tiers  one  over 
another.  The  design  is  not  very  happy.  The 
rest  of  the  building  shows  great  expanses  of 
plain  walls  full  of  scaffold-holes,  in  which  are 
set  the  windows  and  doors,  many  of  them  with 
beautiful  detail.  The  interior  of  the  palace,  as 
with  most  Italian  buildings  of  the  kind,  is  more 
interesting  than  the  outside.  The  exquisite 
decorative  sculpture  of  the  doorways,  the  stair- 
case, and  the  lovely  chimney-pieces,  afford  matter 
for  weeks  of  study.  Nothing  in  that  way  was 
ever  done  to  surpass  the  beautiful  arabesques  of 

^  Arnold,  Der  Herzogliche  Palast  von  Urbino. 


8o  URBINO— THE  PALACE  [Ch.  VL 

Urbino.  They  are  in  the  early  or  what  is  called 
the  Bramantesque  style  of  the  Renaissance, 
though  here  at  Urbino  it  can  hardly  be  called 
Bramantesque,  for  Luciano  preceded  Bramante 
by  four-and-twenty  years,  and  Bramante,  who 
was  born  in  the  Duchy,  in  all  likelihood  was 
influenced  by  Luciano's  work,  which  he  must 
have  watched  in  its  progress  during  his  youth. 

The  famous  library  of  Duke  Federigo  was 
lodged  in  two  vaulted  chambers  near  the  entrance, 
of  which  the  inner  has  a  large  boss  in  the  middle, 
bearing  the  initials  F  *  D,  and  the  imperial 
eagle  quartered  in  the  ducal  'scutcheon,  and  im- 
paling the  papal  insignia,  to  express  the  feudal 
rights  of  the  Church.  It  is  painted  and  gilt  and 
surrounded  by  a  wreath  with  flaming  rays,  from 
which  little  tongues  of  fire  radiate  as  from  a 
centre,  and  are  dotted  at  regular  intervals  all 
over  the  barrel-vaulted  ceiling.  It  has  an  odd, 
but  not  a  bad,  effect. 

The  formation  of  a  fine  library  was  one  of  the 
objects  on  which  these  splendid  Italian  courts 
deservedly  prided  themselves.  The  Laurentian 
Library  at  Florence,  with  its  chained  books,  its  fine 
fittings  by  Michelangelo,  and  its  grisaille  glass 
by  Giovanni  da  Udine,  is  well  known  to  most 
travellers.  Sigismondo  Malatesta  founded  a 
library  at  Rimini,  and  his  brother,  Malatesta 
Novello,  founded  one  at  Cesena  in  1452,  which 
he   endowed    with   three   hundred   gold    florins 


Ch.  VI.]  URBINO— THE  PALACE  8i 

yearly.  It  still  remains,  with  its  original  fittings, 
one  of  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  a  mediaeval 
library.  It  consists  of  a  long  vaulted  hall,  133 
feet  4  inches  by  34  feet,  divided  into  three  naves  by 
two  rows  of  fluted  marble  columns.  The  desks  and 
seats  are  combined,  and  the  books  are  chained.^ 
At  Pesaro  Alessandro  and  Costanzo  Sforza 
founded  a  library  which,  it  was  said,  rivalled 
those  of  Rome  or  Florence.  In  forming  his 
library  at  Urbino,  Duke  Federigo  spared  no  ex- 
pense, and  his  collection  was  pronounced  by  his 
biographer,  Vespasiano  da  Bisticci,  to  have  no 
equal.  After  collating  the  catalogue  with  those 
of  the  Vatican,  Florence,  S.  Marco,  Pavia,  and 
Oxford,  Vespasiano  says  that  in  all  but  that  \ 
of  Urbino  he  found  many  authors  incompletely 
represented,  and  many  duplicates.  Vespasiano 
has  been  called  '*  the  last  of  mediaeval  scribes  and 
the  first  of  modern  booksellers.  Besides  being 
the  agent  of  Cosimo  de'  Medici,  Nicholas  v.,  and 
Federigo  of  Urbino,  he  supplied  the  foreign 
markets  by  sending  MSS.  by  order  to  Hungary, 
Portugal,  Germany,  and  England."^  ^^ 

Federigo  was  fourteen  years  in  forming  his   I 

^  Fide  illustration  in  Care  of  Books ^  p.  199,  by  J.  W.  Clark.     The 
architect  Nuzio  of  Fano  has  recorded  his  name  in  two  hexameter  lines  : 

MATHEVS  •  NVTIVS  • 
FANENSI    EX    VRBE • CREATVS • 

DEDAL  V^S    ALTER  •  OPVS  • 
TANTVM  •  DEDVXIT  •  AD    VNGVEM  • 

2  J.  A.  Symonds,  Renaissance  in  Italy ^  vol.  ii.  pp.  303,  etc. 


-t 


82  URBINO— THE  PALACE  [Ch.  VI. 

collection.  Thirty  or  forty  scribes  were  constantly 
employed  at  Urbino,  Florence,  or  elsewhere  in 
transcribing  books  for  him  :  not  a  single  printed 
book  would  you  find  in  the  whole  library,  for  the 
t  Duke  would  have  been  ashamed,  says  Vespasiano, 
to  own  one.^  This  throws  an  interesting  light  on 
Fthe  reception  given  by  a  literary  connoisseur  to 
Lihe  new  art  which  was  to  revolutionize  the  world. 
Here  were  to  be  found  all  the  Latin  poets,  with 
the  best  commentaries ;  all  the  works  of  Cicero 
and  the  best  prose  writers ;  there  was  every 
known  work  on  history  ;  there  were  all  the  best 
theologians,  and  the  Bible,  ''  the  best  of  books," 
written  in  two  volumes  with  the  richest  and  most 
beautiful  illustrations,  bound  in  brocade  of  gold, 
and  lavishly  ornamented  with  silver.  There  were, 
further,  all  the  treatises  on  astrology,  geometry, 
arithmetic,  architecture,  and  military  tactics,  and 
a  very  curious  volume  with  every  ancient  and 
modern  military  engine,,which  may  perhaps  have 
been  one  of  the  books  by  Francesco  di  Giorgio 
of  which  Vasari  speaks.^  There  were  also  all 
books  on  painting,  sculpture,  and  music ;  the 
modern  Italian  poets,  Petrarch  and  the  rest ;  all 
the  Greek  classics,  philosophers,  and  Fathers, 
with  the  book  of  Paradise,  lives  of  the  Egyptian 

^  "  I  libri  tutti  sono  belli  in  superlativo  grado,  tutti  iscritti  a  penna,  e 
non  v'e  ignuno  a  stampa,  che  ne  sarebbe  vergognato."  Vespasiano, 
ed.  1859,  p.  99. 

2  "  Disegno  anco  alcuni  libri  tutti  pieni  di  cosi  fatti  instrumenti ;  il 
miglior  de'quali  h^  il  Sig.  DucaCosimo  de' Medici  fra  lesue  cose  piii  care." 


Ch.  VI.]  URBtNO— THE  PALACE  83 

saints,  lives  of  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,  and  a 
remarkable  Psalter  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin. 
Every  book  was  bound  in  crimson  ornamented 
with  silver,  *'a  rich  spectacle,"  says  Vespasiano. 
The  sum  spent  on  the  collection  was  30,000 
ducats,  but  the  collection  was  increased  after- 
wards by  succeeding  Dukes,  and  a  room  seems 
to  have  been  allotted  to  printed  books,  when  the 
prejudice  against  the  new  mechanical  art  had 
been  overcome.  The  library  was  transferred  to 
the  Vatican  when  the  Duchy  was  absorbed  into 
the  Papal  States,  and  the  rooms  are  now  prosaic-  , 
ally  filled  by  the  Notarial  Archives.  ^    l' 

The  fittings  seem  to  have  been  arranged 
differently  from  the  usual  mediaeval  plan  of 
placing  the  cases  and  seats  at  right  angles  to  the 
wall,  with  a  window  to  each  pen  or  pew.  At 
Urbino,  on  the  contrary,  the  presses  seem  to  have 
been  arranged  along  the  walls,^  and  there  were 
eight  of  them  each  containing  seven  shelves. 
Baldi  mentions  two  Bibles,  one  Latin,  the  other 
Hebrew,  and  very  old  ;  and  the  latter  rested  on  a 
lectern  of  brass  in  the  form  of  an  eagle  carrying  the 
book  with  outspread  wings.  This  lectern  was  a 
prize  from  Volterra,  and  is  now  in  the  Cathedral.  ^ 

Federigo  was  not  a  mere  collector,  but  so  far 
as  he  had  opportunity  a  student  as  well.  He 
was  a  good    Latin    scholar,  an  accomplishment 

^  Baldi,  writing  in  1587,  says  :  "  Le  scanzie  de'  libri  sono  accostate 
alle  mura,  e  disposte  con  molto  bell'  ordine." 


84  URBINO— THE  PALACE  [Ch.  VI. 

which  Vespasiano  thinks  very  useful  for  a  great 
captain  who  aspires  to  imitate  the  deeds  of  the 
ancients.  He  had  Aristotle's  Ethics  and  Politics 
read  to  him  in  a  Latin  translation,  and  the  works 
of  the  Fathers,  among  whom  he  preferred 
S.  Thomas  Aquinas  to  Scotus.  Also  the  Latin 
classics,  and  the  translation  of  Plutarch's  lives 
were  read  to  him,  says  Vespasiano,  on  which  he 
commented  freely.  Of  his  knowledge  of  archi- 
tecture we  have  spoken  above,  and  he  studied 
arithmetic  and  geometry  with  Maestro  Pagolo,  a 
German  philosopher  and  astrologer.  Music  he 
delighted  in,  and  had  musicians  of  all  kinds  in 
his  house  ;  **  trumpets  and  loud  instruments  gave 
him  no  pleasure,  but  organs  and  delicate  instru- 
ments pleased  him  greatly." 

The  palace,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  plan 
(Fig.  7),  covers  a  great  deal  of  ground,  for  it  had 
to  serve  a  variety  of  purposes.  Castiglione  says 
it  was  not  so  much  a  palace  as  a  city  in  the  form 
of  a  palace.  Besides  being  the  residence  of  the 
Prince  and  his  court,  it  was  also  a  barrack  for 
the  military  retainers,  and  a  college  of  arms  for 
the  young  nobles  who  came  there  to  be  instructed 
in  the  art  of  war.  Room  is  now  found  within  its 
walls  for  the  offices  of  the  Sotto-Prefetto  of  the 
district,  for  a  prison,  for  the  apartments  of  the 
Istituto  delle  Belle  Arti,  and  for  the  Academia 
di  Rafifaello,  and  yet  the  state-rooms  of  Federigo^ 
court  are  left  unoccupied  for  the  delectation   of 


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DUCAL    PALACE 
URBINO 

FIRST  FLOOR  PLAN. 


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